"As I sat in the theatre to-night, Eve," he said, slowly, "all
the pictures I had formed of life shifted. Without desiring
it, without knowing it, my whole point of view was changed. I
suddenly saw things by the world's search-light instead of by
my own miserable candle. I suddenly saw things for you
--instead of for myself."
Eve's eyes widened and darkened, but she said nothing.
"I suddenly saw the unpardonable wrong that I have done you
--the imperative duty of cutting it short." He spoke very
slowly, in a dull, mechanical voice.
Eve--her eyes still wide, her face pained and alarmed
--withdrew her hands from his shoulders. "You mean," she
said, with difficulty, "that it is going to end? That you are
going away? That you are giving everything up? Oh, but you
can't! You can't!" she exclaimed, with sudden excitement, her
fears suddenly overmastering her incredulity. "You can't!
You mustn't! The only proof that could have interfered--"
"I wasn't thinking of the proof."
"Then of what? Of what?"
Loder was silent for a moment.
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