196
FLAMING
YOUTH
“Tt’s true,” he said beneath his breath.
“I love her.
I love her as I never dreamed it possible to love.” “And you’ve told her so.” He made no reply. “I know you have because I know Pat. She’s as greedy as she is shrewd ; she’d know and she’d never be happy until she’d had it out of you. And then she’d be sorry and blame you for speaking.” “Yes. Ive told her,” he muttered. “Inevitable that you should have. Not that it makes any particular difference, but you’re still married, aren’t your” VY
as,??
“Any prospects of change?” “Prospects? No!” “Ah, well; I haven’t
an idea that Pat would
marry
you anyway. She appears to regard you as rather an elderly person, quite delightful to play with, but belonging to another world. Her infatuation will probably die out.” “Give me credit for being decent enough to hope and
know that it will.” “Yet there is no certainty about it. Your appeal to her senses may be temporary, doubtless is. But you have taken hold upon her, mind to a degree which she herself does not appreciate, and that is a more profound and lasting influence. I wonder if you did it deliberately.”
“No.
Yes.
I don’t know whether I did or not.
It
may have been at the back of my brain all the time.” “That sounds more like Pat’s honesty than your own
diplomatic way of looking at things.
It would be quite
incredible that she has exerted a counter-influence upon you.” “Why ineredible, since I love her?’ was the quiet reply. She gave him a swift, estimating glance before she went
