Annie Kilburn

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."