“You’re going away?  Where?”

The words were spoken gently and as if in some absence of mind.  As a matter of fact, Mrs. Eveleth was scarcely thinking of Diane’s words—­she was so intent on the poor little, tear-worn face before her.  She had always known that Diane’s attractions were those of coloring and vivacity, and now that she had lost these she was like an extinguished lamp.

“I haven’t made up my mind yet,” Diane replied, “but I want you to know that you’ll be freed from my presence.”

“What makes you think I want to be—­freed?”

“You must know that I killed George.  You said that night that his blood would be on my head—­and it is.”

“If I said that, I spoke under the stress of terror and excitement—­”

“You needn’t try to take back the words; they were quite true.”

“True in what sense?”

“In almost every sense; certainly in every sense that’s vital.  If it hadn’t been for me, George would be here now.”

“It’s never wise to speculate on what might have happened if it hadn’t been for us.  There’s no end to the useless torture we can inflict on ourselves in that way.”

“I don’t think there ought to be an end to it.”

“Have you anything in particular to reproach yourself with?”

“I’ve everything.”

“That means, then, that there’s no one incident—­or person—­I didn’t know but—­” She hesitated, and Diane took up the sentence.

“You didn’t know but what I had given George specific reason for his act.  I may as well tell you that I never did—­at least not in the sense in which you mean it.  George always knew that I loved him, and that I was true to him.  He trusted me, and was justified in doing so.  It wasn’t that.  It was the whole thing—­the whole life.  There was nothing worthy in it from the beginning to the end.  I played with fire, and while George knew it was only playing, it was fire all the same.”

“But you say you were never—­burnt.”

“If I wasn’t, others were.  I led men on till they thought—­till they thought—­I don’t know how to say it—­”

“Till they thought you should have led them further?”

“Precisely; and Bienville was one of them.  It wasn’t entirely his fault.  I allowed him to think—­to think—­oh, all sorts of things!—­and then when I was tired of him, I turned him into ridicule.  I took advantage of his folly to make him the laughing-stock of Paris; and to avenge himself he lied.  He said I had been his—­No; I can’t tell you.”

“I understand.  You needn’t tell me.  You needn’t tell me any more.”

“There isn’t much more to tell that I can put into words.  It was always—­just like that—­just as it was with Bienville.  He wasn’t the only one.  I made coquetry a game—­but a game in which I cheated.  I was never fair to any of them.  It’s only the fact that the others were more honorable than Bienville that’s kept what has happened now from having happened long ago.  It might have come at any time.  I thought it a fine thing to be able to trifle with passion.  I didn’t know I was only trifling with death.  Oh, if I had been a good woman, George would have been with us still!”