"No, let me go quickly--let me go quickly," she repeated.

"But it's a frightful gash!"

"No--not so bad--let me get away quickly--I'm--I'm not wanted."

At her words, that she was not wanted, his head dropped as if she had
given him a buffet.

"Elsie!" he choked, brokenly and shocked.

But she too made a quick gesture, as if she put something violently
aside.

"Oh, Paul, not _that_--not _you_--of course I do mean that too in a
sense--oh, you know what I mean!... But if the other can't be, spare
me this now! I--I wouldn't have come, but--but--oh, I did, I _did_ try to
keep away!"

It was intolerable, heartbreaking; but what could he do--what could he
say? He did not love her...

"Let me go--I'm not wanted--let me take away what's left of me--"

"Dear Elsie--you are very dear to me--"

But again she made the gesture, as of putting something violently aside.

"No, not that--not anything less--don't offer me anything less--leave me