Alpha Book

"Why, what has he--"
"Nothing. I can't discuss it, Nina--"
"Please tell me, Phil!"
"There is nothing to tell."
She said deliberately: "I hope there is not, Phil. Nor do I credit any
mischievous gossip which ventures to link my brother's name with the
name of Mrs. Ruthven."
He paid no heed to what she hinted, and he was still thinking of Ruthven
when he said: "The most contemptible and cowardly thing a man can do is
to fail a person dependent on him--when that person is in prospective
danger. The dependence, the threatened helplessness _must_ appeal to any
man! How can he, then, fail to stand by a person in trouble--a person
linked to him by every tie, every obligation. Why--why to fail at such a
time is dastardly--and to--to make a possible threatened infirmity a
reason for abandoning a woman is monstrous--!"
"Phil! I never for a moment supposed that even if you suspected Alixe to
be not perfectly responsible you would have abandoned her--"
"_I?_ Abandon _her!_" He laughed bitterly.


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