an."

"And Cynthia?"

"Break with her."

"Oh!" Jeff gave a snort of derision.

"You're not fit for her. You couldn't do a crueler thing for her than to
keep faith with her."

"Do you mean it?"

"Yes, I mean it. Stick to Miss Lynde--if she'll let you."

Jeff seemed puzzled by Westover's attitude, which was either too sincere
or too ironical for him. He pushed his hat, which he had kept on, back
from his forehead. "Damned if I don't believe she would," he mused aloud.
The notion seemed to flatter him and repay him for what he must have been
suffering. He smiled, but he said: "She wouldn't do, even if she were any
good. Cynthia is worth a million of her. If she wants to give me up after
she knows all about me, well and good. I shu'n't blame her. But I shall
give her a fair chance, and I shu'n't whitewash myself; you needn't be
afraid of that, Mr. Westover."

"Why should I care what you do?" asked the painter, scornfully.

"Well, you can't, on my account," Durgin allowed. "But you do care on her
account."

"Yes, I do," said Westover, sitting down again, and he did not say
anything more.

Durgin waited a long while for him to speak before he asked: "Then that's
really your advice, is it?"

"Yes, break with her."

"And stick to Miss Lynde."

"If she'll let you."

Jeff was silent in his turn. He started from his silence with a laugh.
"She'd make a daisy landlady for Lion's Head. I believe she would like to
try it awhile just for the fun. But after the ball was over--well, it
would be a good joke, if it was a joke. Cynthia is a woman--she a'n't any
corpse-light. She understands me, and she don't overrate me, either. She
knew just how much I was worth, and she took me at her own valuation.
I've got my way in life marked out, and she believes in it as much as I
do. If anybody can keep me level and make the best of me, she can, and
she's going to have the chance, if she wants to. I'm going to act square
with her about the whole thing. I guess she's the best judge in a case
like this, and I shall lay the whole case before her, don't you be afraid
of that. And she's got to have a free field. Why, even if there wa'n't
any question of her," he went on, falling more and more into his
vernacular, "I don't believe I should care in the long run for this other
one. We couldn't make it go for any time at all. She wants excitement,
and after the summer folks began to leave, and we'd been to Florida for a
winter, and then