"I've not had time yet! I told you it all happened just a moment ago." Then, still brutally, he went on. "Why, what do you know of love? What do you know about the way I feel toward Anne?" "Be as cruel as you like," said she, flushing now under such words. "I presume you feel as all men think they feel sometimes. They see that woman for that moment--they think that they believe what they say--they think they must do what they do. You are a man, yes, Don, or you could not have said to me what you have." He flung out his arms, impatient. "I am having a fine start, am I not? I'm a beggar, a pauper, and worse than that. I've got to pay you and Miss Julia. I've got to go on through life, with that secret on my mind. I can't confront that man and tell him. You and I--just today meeting--why, we begin to argue. And now I've got to face Anne Oglesby with that secret. It can't be a secret from her. I'd never ask her to join her life to one like mine. And--God! a woman like her.... I can't tell you.... Death--why, I believe this is worse." "Don't tell me, Don, don't try." She turned to him, her voice hoarse and low. "It's a wrong thing for you to talk to me about things of that sort. Birds out of the nest begin all over again--this must begin again, I suppose--but it's too awful--too terrible. I don't want to hear any more talk about love. But rather than see you live with her, rather than see you talk that way of her, it seems to me I'd rather die. Because, she knows all about _me_--or will. What made you come? Why didn't you stay away? Why couldn't you find some other girl to love, away from here?" "Which shows how much you really care for my happiness! I suppose, like many women, you are stubborn. Is that it, mother?" She winced under this, wringing her hands. "If I could only lie--if I only could!" "And if I only could, also!" he repeated after her. "But she's coming tomorrow, Mother--I've made her promise she'd come to see you. She said she'd make some excuse to come down and see her guardian. I'm going to meet her tomorrow. And when I do, I've got to tell her what I've learned today--every word of it--all--all! And I'll be helpless. I'll not be able to fight. I'll have to take it." "That's right, Don, that's right. Even if I loved her as you do, even if it were the best thing in the world for you if you could marry her, I'd say that you should not. Don, whatever you do, don't ever be crooked with a woman. She's a woman, too. No matter what it cost, I couldn't see her suffer by finding out anything after it was too late." "It won't take long," said he, simply. "We'll part tomorrow. But oh! Why did you save me--why did Miss Julia come that night? My place was under the water--there! Then the door would have been closed indeed. But now all the doors are closed on ahead, and none behind. I'll never be happy again. And I'm making her unhappy, too, who's not to blame. It runs far, doesn't it?--far and long."