"
"What?"
"This--this risk of being found out. And we could hardly count again on
such a lucky combination of chances, could we?"
He sat down with a groan.
Still keeping her face toward the darkness, she said, "I want you to go
and tell Lady Susan--and the others."
Gannett, who had moved towards her, paused a few feet off.
"Why do you wish me to do this?" he said at length, with less surprise in
his voice than she had been prepared for.
"Because I've behaved basely, abominably, since we came here: letting
these people believe we were married--lying with every breath I drew--"
"Yes, I've felt that too," Gannett exclaimed with sudden energy.
The words shook her like a tempest: all her thoughts seemed to fall about
her in ruins.
"You--you've felt so?"
"Of course I have." He spoke with low-voiced vehemence. "Do you suppose I
like playing the sneak any better than you do? It's damnable."
He had dropped on the arm of a chair, and they stared at each other like
blind people who suddenly see.
"But you have liked it here," she faltered.
"Oh, I've liked it--I've liked it." He moved impatiently. "Haven't you?"
"Yes," she burst out; "that's the worst of it--that's what I can't bear. I
fancied it was for your sake that I insisted on staying--because you
thought you could write here; and perhaps just at first that really was
the reason. But afterwards I wanted to stay myself--I loved it." She broke
into a laugh.
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