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THE WOMAN PAYS
 

The figurative phrase was true: she was another woman than the one he had desired.

‘I have thought over what you say,’ she remarked to him, moving her forefinger over the tablecloth, her other hand, which bore the ring that mocked them both, supporting her forehead. ‘It is quite true, all of it; it must be. You must go away from me.’

‘But what can you do?’

‘I can go home.’

Clare had not thought of that.

‘Are you sure?’ he said

‘Quite sure. We ought to part, and we may as well get it past and done. You once said that I was apt to win men against their better judgment; and if I am constantly before your eyes I may cause you to change your plans in opposition to your reason and wish; and afterwards your repentance and my sorrow will be terrible.’

‘And you would like to go home?’ he asked.

‘I want to leave you, and go home.’

‘Then it shall be so.’

Though she did not look up at him, she started. There was a difference between the

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