the difficulty--and the danger?"

"Between us we shall find the way."

"No, Robert. Between us we shall lose it. And we shall never, never find
it again."

"You can't trust me, Kitty?"

"I can't trust myself. I know how your scheme would work. I let you do
this thing; I go away and live in the dear little house you'll give me;
and I let you keep me there, and give me all my clothes and things. And
you think that's the way to stop me thinking about you and caring for
you? I shall be there, eating my heart out. What else can I do, when
everything I put on or have about me reminds me of you, every minute of
the day? I'm to look to you for everything, but never to see you until I
can bear it no longer. How long do you think I shall bear it? A woman
made like me? You know perfectly well what the trouble and the
difficulty and the danger is. I shall be in it all the time. And some
day I shall send for you and you'll come. Oh yes, you'll come; for
you'll be in it, too. It won't be a bit easier for you than it is for
me."

She paused.

"You'll come. And you know what the end of that will be."

"You think no other end is possible between a man and a woman?"

"If I do, it's men who have made me think it."

"Have _I_, Kitty?"

"No, not you. I don't say your plan wouldn't work with some other woman.
I say it's impossible between you--and me."

"Because you won't believe that I might behave differently from some
other men?"

"You _are_ different. And I mean to keep you so."

She rose.

"There's only one way," she said. "We must never see each other again.
We mustn't even _think_. I shall go away, and you're not to come after
me."

"When?"

"To-morrow. Perhaps to-night."

"And where, Kitty?"

"I don't know."

"You shan't go," he said. "I'll go. You must stay here until we can
think of something."

She closed her eyes and drew a hard sigh, as if exhausted with the
discussion.

"Robert, dear, would you mind not talking any more to me? I'm very
tired."

"If I leave you will you go to bed and rest?"

"I think so. You can say good night."

He rose and came toward her.

"No--don't say it!" she cried. "Don't speak to me!"

She drew back and put her hands behind her as a sign that he was not to
touch her.

He stood for a moment looking at her. And as he looked at her he was
afraid, even as she was. He said to himself that in that moment she was
wise and had done well. For his heart hardly knew its pity