"
"It isn't."
"What is, then?"
"Living with Papa."
He smiled through his agony. "That's only another name for it.
"It can't go on. Why shouldn't we be happy?
"Why shouldn't we?" he insisted. "It's not as if we hadn't tried."
"I--can't."
"You're afraid?"
"Oh, no, I'm not afraid. It's simply that I can't."
"You think it's a sin? It isn't. It's we who are sinned against.
"If you're afraid of deceiving Mary--I don't care if I do. She
deceived me first. Besides we can't. She knows and she doesn't mind.
She can't suffer as you suffer. She can't feel as you feel. She can't
care."
"She does care. She must have cared horribly or she wouldn't have done
it."
"She didn't. Anybody would have done for her as well as me. I tell you
I don't want to talk about Mary or to think about her."
"Then I must."
"No. You must think of me. You don't owe anything to Mary. It's me
you're sinning against. You think a lot about sinning against Mary,
but you think nothing about sinning against me."
"When did I ever sin against you?"
"Last year. When you went away. That was the beginning of it all. Why
_did_ you go, Gwenda? You knew. We should have been all right if you
hadn't."
"I went because of Ally. She had to be married. I thought--perhaps--if
I wasn't there----"
"That I'd marry her? Good God! Ally! What on earth made you think
I'd do that? I wouldn't have married her if there hadn't been another
woman in the world.
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