Unless I have to."
"But you must not! Never!" she cried desperately. "He thinks I'm--Oh,
don't you understand? If he were to learn what I really am, it would
kill him. He must keep his dream. For his sake he must never find out,
he must keep on thinking of me just the same. Now, you understand?"
Larry slowly nodded.
Her next words were dully vibrant with stricken awe. "And it means
that I can never have him for my father! Never! And I think--I'd--I'd
like him for a father! Don't you see?"
Again Larry nodded. In this entirely new phase of her, a white-faced,
stricken, shivering girl, Larry felt a poignant sympathy for her the
like of which had never tingled through him in her conquering moods.
Indeed Maggie's situation was opening out into great human problems
such as neither he nor any one else had ever foreseen!
"There comes Dick," she whispered. "I must do my best to hold myself
together. Good-bye, Larry."
A minute later, Larry just behind her, she was crossing the lawn on
Dick's arm, explaining her weakness and pallor by the sudden dizziness
which had come upon her in consequence of not eating and of being in
the hot sun.
CHAPTER XXXI
Larry was far more deeply moved this time when Maggie drove away with
Dick than on that former occasion when he had tried to play with
adroitness upon her psychological reactions.
Pages:
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335