She asked, apparently as preliminary to answering a question of his, "Have
you heard that gossip about my--being in--caring for the poor man?"
"Yes."
"And did you--what did you think?"
"That it wasn't true. I knew if there were anything in it, you couldn't
have talked him over with me."
She was silent. Then she said, in a low voice: "No, there couldn't have
been. But not for that reason alone, though it's very delicate and generous
of you to think of it, very large-minded; but because it _couldn't_
have been. I could have worshipped him, but I couldn't have loved him--any
more," she added, with an implication that entirely satisfied him, "than I
could have worshipped you."