Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 2.djvu/212

198 "What would you have done?" Rose demanded.

"I would have saved you."

"What would you have done?" she pressed.

"Everything."

She was silent while he went to the window. "Yes, I've lost you—I've lost you," she said at last. "And you were the thing I might have had. He told me that, and I knew it."

"'He' told you?" Paul had faced round.

"He tried to put me off on you. That was what finished me. Of course they'll marry," she abruptly continued.

"Oh yes, they'll marry."

"But not soon, do you suppose?"

"Not soon. But sooner than they think."

Rose looked surprised. "Do you already know what they think?"

"Yes—that it will never be."

"Never?"

"Coming about so horribly. But some day—it will be."

"It will be," said Rose. "And I shall have done it for him. That's more," she said, "than even you would have done for me."