This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
BAMBI
333

truth between us, Bambi. I want you to read her letters. I want you to try to understand how this has crept into my heart.”

“You wish to be free—to go to her?”

“There is no happiness for us, is there?”

“I’m too tired to think it out now, Jarvis. You must go away and let me get myself together.”

She looked like a pitiful little wraith, and his heart ached for her.

“I’m sorry I had to add to your hard day, but I had to say this to-night.”

“It’s all right. I must ask you not to speak to me of it again until after to-morrow night. I need all my strength for that ordeal. After that, we must turn our attention to this new problem, and work it out together, somehow.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry I’ve been such a disappointment to you, my dear,” he added.

“Good-night. Take the letters— I could not bear to read them.”

With an agonized look he took them and left her.

“Dear lord, I’m through with plots! I’m sick unto death of the secret,” she sighed, as she climbed into bed.