She sat up, drawing away from him, readjusting her hat. Yes, she would throw herself on his generosity; she would tell him the truth--perhaps not the truth in every detail, but all that was vital. For she could not bear that he should see Josh Nebbins as he really was. The vulgarity, the pettiness of it, she would keep from him, divining how his aristocratic temperament would revolt at the thought that such arms had once held her as his now encircled her. "It is nothing bad!" she said. "There is nothing in my life that I am ashamed of. That is the truth! Only, I am upset, irritated, terribly irritated. I am passing through a most disagreeable experience. The man you saw I was engaged to three years ago, when I was an ignorant foolish girl. I regret it bitterly! We were totally unsuited. Now it is ridiculous, humiliating! I never expected to see him again!" "Who is he?" he asked. "Oh, there is nothing wrong with him!" she said instantly. "He was in the ministry, in settlement work--very honest, very good. Then he went on a paper. I don't know how it happened! I was very religious then; I wanted to devote my life--" "But why didn't you break it off, Dodo?" "I did! But you don't know him! He wouldn't marry me then until he'd saved some money, writing articles and all that sort of thing. Now he can't see how I've changed, how impossible it would be. And oh, it makes me shudder! It's such a narrow walled-in little life! So barren, so ugly!" "Send him away!" "If I could! He won't understand. And when I'm with him I feel as if I were being dragged back to all I hate! He's a terrible man! Sometimes I really am afraid he'll force me to marry him. Oh, I assure you, I am very, very unhappy!" "And the ring, Dodo?" he said, with a sigh of relief, leaning over and touching her hand. It was as if a sudden blast of cold air had been let in. She drew back. "I can't tell you of that now," she said hastily. "When you have the right--and that depends on you--I will tell you, for it is something that I am very glad of!" "Dodo, I must know. I can't go on like this! I simply can't." "Neither can I!" she said, with a sudden lump in her throat. "Don't you see how I am going to pieces? Don't you know why I do such wild crazy things? Oh, if I were only sure of you!" "If I could be sure of _you_!" he retorted bitterly. "What would you do?" she asked, grasping his arm eagerly. "Would you do as I wish? Would you dare?" "Dodo, I wish to be divorced and to marry you!" he said abruptly. She shrank from him with a cry of disappointment. She sought romance, uncalculated and overwhelming; she wished to hear him, driven beyond himself, crying tempestuous words in her ears, ready for any sacrifice; and instead, he was concerned with planning a conventional solution. "No, no!" she cried, bitterly disillusioned. "Oh, you don't love me as I love you, if you can think only of that!" "But why not, Dodo?"