I gave up
everything for your sake--home, father, and friends--you will not
cast me off like this after all I have sacrificed for you? Oh, for
God's sake, speak--speak!'
'My dear,' said Vandeloup, gravely, looking down at the kneeling
figure with the streaming eyes and clenched hands, 'as long as you
choose to stay here I will be your friend--I cannot afford to marry
you, but while you are with me our lives will be as they have been;
good-bye at present,' touching her forehead coldly with his lips, 'I
will call to-morrow afternoon to see how you are, and I trust this
will be the last of such scenes.'
He drew his hand away from hers, and she sat on the floor dull and
silent, with her eyes fixed on the ground and an aching in her
heart. Vandeloup went into the hall, put on his hat, then lighting
another cigarette and taking his stick, walked gaily out of the
house, humming an air from 'La Belle Helene'. The cab was waiting
for him at the door, and telling the man to drive to the Bachelors'
Club, he entered the cab and rattled away down the street without a
thought for the broken-hearted woman he left behind.
Kitty sat on the floor with her folded hands lying carelessly on her
lap and her eyes staring idly at the carpet. This, then, was the end
of all her hopes and joys--she was cast aside carelessly by this man
now that he wearied of her.
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