You don't know how true I have tried to be to myself, and to the truth as I understand it--as true as I have been to you in thought and deed....
And, somehow, what threatened--a moment since--frightens me, humiliates me--" She lifted her head and looked up at him with dimmed eyes: "You were untrue to yourself, Louis--to your own idea of truth.

And you were untrue to me.

And for the first time I look at you, ashamed and shamed." "Yes," he said, very white.
"Why did you offer our love such an insult ?" she asked.
He made no answer.
"Was it because, in your heart, you hold a girl lightly who promised to give herself to you for your own sake, renouncing the marriage vows ?" "No! Good God--" "Then--is it because you do not yet love me enough?
For I shall not give myself to you until you do." He hung his head.
"I think that is it," she said, sorrowfully.
"No.

I'm no good," he said.

"And that's the truth, Valerie." A dark flush stained his face and he turned it away, sitting there in silence, his tense clasp tightening on the arms of the chair.