"Am I at this moment aware of anything except my sadness and your
despair?"

"You love him, you love him! What is he, who is he, that you should love
him?"

His surprise made him stupid; he was in an abyss of astonishment. But
what she had said separated them. He dared not complain. He only
repeated:

"You love him, you love him! But what has he done to you, what has he
said, to make you love him? I know you. I have not told you every time
your ideas shocked me. I would wager he is not even a man in society.
And you believe he loves you? You believe it? Well, you are deceiving
yourself. He does not love you. You flatter him, simply. He will quit
you at the first opportunity. When he shall have compromised you, he
will abandon you. Next year people will say of you: 'She is not at all
exclusive.' I am sorry for your father; he is one of my friends, and
will know of your behavior. You can not expect to deceive him."

She listened, humiliated but consoled, thinking how she would have
suffered had she found him generous.

In his simplicity he sincerely disdained her. This disdain relieved him.

"How did the thing happen? You can tell me."

She shrugged her shoulders with so much pity that he dared not continue.
He became contemptuous again.