"I was a brute! I ought to have shielded you more," the girl cried. "I could have, had I realized. Well, I can yet do something, thank heaven. Give me that check."
"Return it, of course--return it before Stanley Heath leaves town. Isn't that what you want done? Surely you do not wish to keep it."
"I'll take it over to Elisha Winslow's now, this minute."
"I wonder--yes, probably that will be best. You won't, I suppose, be allowed to see Stanley," speculated she timidly.
"Don't say anything harsh, Sylvia. Please do not blame him, or--"
"I'll wring his neck!" was the emphatic retort.
"Oh, please--please dear--for my sake! I can't let you go if you go in that spirit," pleaded Marcia in alarm.
"There, there--you need not worry for fear I shall maltreat your Romeo, richly as he deserves it," was the response. "I could kill him--but I won't--because of you. Nevertheless, I warn you that if I get the chance I shall tell him what I think of him. No power on earth can keep me from doing that. He is terribly to blame and ought to realize it. No married man has any business playing round with another woman. He may get by with it in New York, but on Cape Cod or in Alton City," she drew herself up, "it just isn't done and the sooner Stanley Heath understands that, the better. That's that! Now I'll get my hat and go."
"You don't trust me? Don't you believe I love you?"
"I am afraid you love me too much, dear."
"I do love you, Marcia. I never dreamed I could care so intensely for anyone I have known for so short a time. What you did for my mother alone would make me love you. But aside from gratitude there are other reasons. I love you for your own splendid self, dear. Please do not fear to trust me. I promise you I will neither be unjust nor bitter. The fact that you care for Stanley Heath shall protect him and make me merciful."
"Take the check then and go. I wish I were to see him."
"Well, you're not! Rowing across that channel and hurrying to his side after the way he's treated you! Not a bit of it! I'd tie you to your own bedpost first," snapped Sylvia. "Let him do the explaining and apologizing. Let him cross the channel and grovel at your feet. That's what he ought to do!"
"Please, Sylvia! You promised, remember."