If it hadn't been for that I should have asked you to marry me a long while ago, because I love you, as I would now, but of course it is impossible." Barbara ceased her weeping, wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, and looked up at him.
"Alan," she said, "I think that you are the biggest fool I ever knew--not but that a fool is rather refreshing when one lives among knaves." "I know I am a fool," he answered.

"If I wasn't I should not have mentioned my misfortune to you, but sometimes things are too much for one.

Forget it and forgive me." "Oh! yes," she said; "I forgive you; a woman can generally forgive a man for being fond of her.

Whatever she may be, she is ready to take a lenient view of his human weakness.

But as to forgetting, that is a different matter.