“That would be no consolation for me, John; that would be no consolation for me.  How can you?  How can you?”

She rose to her feet and covered her face with her hands in a paroxysm of weeping.  John, too, sprang to his feet, you may be sure.  “Dorothy!  God help me!  I am the king of fools.  Curse this hour in which I have thrown away my heaven.  You must hate and despise me, fool, fool that I am.”

John knew that it were worse than useless for him to attempt an explanation.  The first thought that flashed through his mind was, to tell the girl that he had only pretended not to know her.  He thought he would try to make her believe that he had been turning her trick upon herself; but he was wise in his day and generation, and did not seek refuge in that falsehood.

The girl would never have forgiven him for that.

“The only amends I can make,” he said, in very dolefulness, “is that I may never let you see my face again.”

“That will not help matters,” sobbed Dorothy.

“I know it will not,” returned John.  “Nothing can help me.  I can remain here no longer.  I must leave you.  I cannot even ask you to say farewell.  Mistress Vernon, you do not despise me half so bitterly as I despise myself.”

Dorothy was one of those rare natures to whom love comes but once.  It had come to her and had engulfed her whole being.  To part with it would be like parting with life itself.  It was her tyrant, her master.  It was her ego.  She could no more throw it off than she could expel herself from her own existence.  All this she knew full well, for she had analyzed her conditions, and her reason had joined with all her other faculties in giving her a clear concept of the truth.  She knew she belonged to John Manners for life and for eternity.  She also knew that the chance of seeing him soon again was very slight, and to part from him now in aught but kindness would almost kill her.

Before John had recognized Dorothy he certainly had acted like a fool, but with the shock of recognition came wisdom.  All the learning of the ancients and all the cunning of the prince of darkness could not have taught him a wiser word with which to make his peace, “I may never let you see my face again.”  That was more to be feared by Dorothy than even John’s inconstancy.

Her heart was full of trouble.  “I do not know what I wish,” she said simply.  “Give me a little time to think.”

John’s heart leaped with joy, but he remained silent.

Dorothy continued:  “Oh, that I had remained at home.  I would to God I had never seen Derby-town nor you.”

John in the fulness of his wisdom did not interrupt her.

“To think that I have thus made a fool of myself about a man who has given his heart to a score of women.”

“This is torture,” moaned John, in real pain.

“But,” continued Dorothy, “I could not remain away from this place when I had the opportunity to come to you.  I felt that I must come.  I felt that I should die if I did not.  And you are so false.  I wish I were dead.  A moment ago, had I been another woman, you would have kissed her.  You thought I was another woman.”