She thrust her head back, her face uplifted to the skies, her eyes closed.
"Oh, Dick," she murmured, "I meant that this should never be.

Even now--you shall forget it." "No--I couldn't." "So one says.

But--oh, it would be your ruin." She started away from him.
"Listen!" "Yes," he answered.
She stood confronting him desperately a yard or so away, her bosom heaving, her face wet with her tears.

Dick Hazlewood did not stir.
Stella's lips moved as though she were speaking but no words were audible, and it seemed that her strength left her.

She came suddenly forward, groping with her hands like a blind person.
"Oh, my dear," she said as he caught them.