"Of course it makes it awkward if the colonel didn't expressly tell you
just what to do. I suppose he left it to my discretion, and I decide
definitely that you must go back at once."

"I can't do it."

"Lou, don't you hear me saying that I'll take the responsibility? If
your father blames you let him tell me--"

He broke down in the middle of his sentence and another of those
uncomfortable little pauses ensued. Donnegan knew that their eyes were
miserably upon each other; the man tongue-tied by his guilt; the girl
wretchedly guessing at the things which lay behind her fiancé's words.

"I'm sorry you don't want me here."

"It isn't that, but--"

He apparently expected to be interrupted, but she waited coolly for him
to finish the sentence, and, of course, he could not. After all, for a
helpless girl she had a devilish effective way of muzzling Landis.
Donnegan chuckled softly in admiration.

All at once she broke through the scene; her voice did not rise or
harden, but it was filled with finality, as though she were weary of the
interview.

"I'm tired out; it's been a hard ride, Jack. You go home now and look me
up again any time tomorrow."