That would be ungracious on my part. Perhaps it wasn't quite necessary that we should meet again. LUCY. You've been acting all the time I've been here. D'you think I didn't see it was unreal when you talked with such cynical indifference. I know you well enough to tell when you're hiding your real self behind a mask. ALEC. If I'm doing that, the inference is obvious that I wish my real self to be hidden. LUCY. I would rather you cursed me than treat me with such cold politeness. ALEC. I'm afraid you're rather difficult to please. [LUCY _goes up to him passionately, but he draws back so that she may not touch him_. LUCY. Oh, you're of iron. Alec, Alec, I couldn't let you go without seeing you once more. Even you would be satisfied if you knew what bitter anguish I've suffered. Even you would pity me. I don't want you to think too badly of me. ALEC. Does it much matter what I think? We shall be so many thousand miles apart. LUCY. I suppose that you utterly despise me. ALEC. No. I loved you far too much ever to do that. Believe me, I only wish you well. Now that the bitterness is past, I see that you did the only possible thing. I hope that you'll be very happy. LUCY. Oh, Alec, don't be utterly pitiless. Don't leave me without a single word of kindness. ALEC. Nothing is changed, Lucy. You sent me away on account of your brother's death. [_There is a long silence, and when she speaks it is hesitatingly, as if the words were painful to utter._ LUCY. I hated you then, and yet I couldn't crush the love that was in my heart. I used to try and drive you away from my thoughts, but every word you had ever said came back to me. Don't you remember? You told me that everything you did was for my sake. Those words hammered at my heart as though it were an anvil. I struggled not to believe them. I said to myself that you had sacrificed George coldly, callously, prudently, but in my heart I knew it wasn't true. [_He looks at her, hardly able to believe what she is going to say, but does not speak._] Your whole life stood on one side and only this hateful story on the other. You couldn't have grown into a different man in one single instant. I came here to-day to tell you that I don't understand the reason of what you did. I don't want to understand. I believe in you now with all my strength. I know that whatever you did was right and just--because you did it. [_He gives a long, deep sigh._ ALEC. Thank God! Oh, I'm so grateful to you for that. LUCY. Haven't you anything more to say to me than that? ALEC. You see, it comes too late. Nothing much matters now, for to-morrow I go away. LUCY. But you'll come back. ALEC. I'm going to a part of Africa from which Europeans seldom return. LUCY. [_With a sudden outburst of passion._] Oh, that's too horrible. Don't go, dearest! I can't bear it! ALEC.