Alpha Book

And when
he appeared I did everything to prevent him from playing; _you_ will
never know what took place--what I submitted to--
"I am trying to be truthful, Phil; I want to lay my heart bare for
you--but there are things a woman cannot wholly confess. Believe me, I
did what I could. . . . And _that_ is all I can say. Oh, I know what it
costs you to be mixed up in such contemptible complications. I, for my
part, can scarcely bear to have you know so much about me--and what I am
come to. That is my real punishment, Phil--not what you said it was.
"I do not think it is well for me that you know so much about me. It is
not too difficult to face the outer world with a bold front--or to
deceive any man in it. But our own little world is being rapidly
undeceived; and now the only real man remaining in it has seen my gay
mask stripped off--which is not well for a woman, Phil.
"I remember what you said about an anchorage; I am trying to clear these
haunted eyes of mine and steer clear of phantoms--for the honour of what
we once were to each other before the world.


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