"I haven't done anything." "Done? Look at the way you've worked for me. I've never known anything like your devotion, Barbara." "Oh, _that_! It was only my job." "Was it your job to save me from that horrible woman?" "Oh, yes; it was all in the day's work." "My dear Barbara, no woman ever does a day's work like that for a man unless she cares for him. And unless she wants him to care for her." "As it happens, it was Fanny I cared for. I was thinking of Fanny all the time.... If _you'd_ think about Fanny more and about Mrs. Levitt and people less, it would be a good thing." "It's too late to think about Fanny now. That's only your sweetness and goodness." "Please don't lie. If you really thought me sweet and good you wouldn't expect me to be a substitute for Mrs. Levitt." "Don't talk about Mrs. Levitt. Do you suppose I think of you in the same sentence? That was a different thing altogether." "Was it? Was it so very different?" He saw that she remembered. "It was. A man may lose his head ten times over without losing his heart once. If it's Mrs. Levitt you're thinking about, you can put that out of your mind for ever." "It isn't only Mrs. Levitt. There's Ralph Bevan. You've forgotten Ralph Bevan." "What has Ralph Bevan got to do with it?" "Simply this, that I'm engaged to be married to him." "To be married? To be married to Ralph Bevan? Oh, Barbara, why didn't you tell me?" "Ralph didn't want me to, till nearer the time." "The time.... Did it come to that?" "It did," said Barbara. He moved from the doorway and began walking up and down the room. She might now have gone out, but she didn't go. She _had_ to see what he would make of it. At his last turn he faced her and stood still. "Poor child," he said, "so that's what I've driven you to?" Amazement kept her silent. "Sit down," he said, "we must go through this together." Amazement made her sit down. Certainly they must go through it, to see what he would look like at the end. He was unsurpassable. She mustn't miss him. "Look here, Barbara." He spoke in a tone of forced, unnatural calm. "I don't think you quite understand the situation. I'm sure you don't realize for one moment how serious it is." "I don't. You mustn't expect me to take it seriously." "That's because you don't take yourself seriously enough, dear. In some ways you're singularly humble. I don't believe you really know how deep this thing has gone with me, or you wouldn't have talked about Mrs. Levitt.... "... It's life and death, Barbara. Life and death.... I'll make a confession. It wasn't serious at first. It wasn't love at first sight. But it's gone all the deeper for that. I didn't know how deep it was till the other day. And I had so much to think of. So many claims. Fanny--" "Yes. Don't forget Fanny."