You
simply can't add anything to the case I made you make out for yourself when
I talked it over with you. I made you protest very vigorously."
"Well, what did I say--that is, what did you make me say?"
"You said you were engaged--pledged to another--that you could not draw
back without dishonour. And I answered that no engagement could bind you to
become the wife of a man you did not love; that no moral code could hold
you to such a sin; that no code of honour could command you to permit a man
to degrade himself and you. Then you pleaded that you were not sure you
liked my kind of a life, that you feared you wanted wealth and a great
establishment and social leadership and--and all that."
"Did I?" Marian said with exaggerated astonishment.
"You did indeed. You were perfectly open with me. You let me see all that
part of you which we try to keep concealed and fancy we are concealing--all
that one really feels and wishes and thinks as distinguished from what one
fancies he ought to feel and wish and think."
"I wonder that you cared, after a glance behind that curtain."
"Oh, but I like what is behind that curtain best of all. The very human
things are there. They make me feel so at home."
Dinner was announced and it was not until the second course that he had a
chance to resume.
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