I--I can't think how I ever came to do it.

But--but I wouldn't mind so frightfully if it weren't for you.
That's what troubles me most--to have made a horrible mess of my life, and to have dragged you into it." Her voice shook, and she broke off for a moment, biting her lips.

Then: "Oh, Jerry," she wailed, "I've done a dreadful thing--a dreadful thing! Don't you see it--what he will think of me--how he will despise me ?" The last words came muffled through her hands.

Her head was bowed against the chimney-piece.
Jerry was nonplussed.

He rose somewhat awkwardly, and drew near the bowed figure.
"But, my dear girl," he said, laying a slightly hesitating hand upon her shoulder, "what the devil does it matter what he thinks?
Surely you don't--you can't care--care the toss of a half-penny ?" But here she amazed him still further.
"I do, Jerry, I do!" she whispered vehemently.