But to say, "No, I still love you, Vincent," in a tone that conceded the very utmost that she could,--namely, that she still loved him for the old, rather pitiful association,--that would be to inflict the most painful wound possible.

And so that was what she said.
She was prepared to have him take it up and cry: "You still love me?
Do you mean as you love your Aunt Alberta ?" and she, still trying to be just, would answer: "Oh, more than Aunt Alberta.

Only, of course--" The trouble was he did not make the right answer.

When she said, "No, I still love you, Vincent," he answered: "I cannot say the same." It was one of those replies that change the face of the world.

It drove every other idea out of her head.