"Well," said the girl more gently, "I'm glad to think you do,
but this is the last, and before I go, I -- ".

"Go!" demanded Winthrop roughly. "Where?"

"Before I go," continued the girl, "I want to tell you how much
you have helped me -- I want to thank you -- ".

"You haven't let me thank you," broke in Winthrop, "and, now,
you pretend this is our last meeting. It's absurd!".

"It is our last meeting," replied the girl. Of the two, for the
moment, she was the older, the more contained. "On the
contrary," contradicted the man. He spoke sharply, in a tone he
tried to make as determined as her own. "Our next meeting will
be in ten minutes -- at my sister's. I have told her about this
afternoon, and about you; and she wants very much to meet you.
She has sent her car for you. It's waiting in front of the
house. Now," he commanded masterfully, "you come with me, and
get in it, and leave all this" -- he gave an angry, contemptuous
wave of the hand toward the cabinet -- "behind you, as," he
added earnestly, "you promised me you would."

As though closing from sight the possibility he suggested, the
girl shut her eyes quickly, and then opened them again to meet
his.

"I can't leave these things behind me," she said quietly.

"I told you so this afternoon. For a moment, you made me think I