Chapter XIII
The Love of Gino
Her letter to Jack was short. It told him she could not see him, and that until the day when she could explain why, she begged him to forgive her and try to believe her, as always, his friend.
Then she wrote to Gino; but with the pen in her hand she felt unexpected resentment toward the man she loved. “I have told my friend not to come because his coming seemed to hurt you so. The hurt was without cause, and to relieve you of it I have had to humiliate myself in my own eyes.” And then she tore the paper in two, for she did not wish to show him anger, or perhaps unreason.
“I have told Jack not to come,” she wrote again, “because his coming hurt you.” But this did not please her because it gave no suggestion of the wound he had given to her dignity.
“I have written Jack not to come,” she wrote at last; and let it stand without addition of beginning or signature.
This was late at night, after her aunt had gone143
