I know now that I was
mistaken. In your way you cared for Palliser. You starved me. My own
fault, you would say? Perhaps. But listen. There is a way into every
man's heart and a way into every woman's, but sometimes that way lies
hidden except to the one right person, and you weren't the right person
for me, and I wasn't the right person for you. Now answer the rest of
my question and let us part."
"Tell me," she asked, with almost insolent irony, "do you believe that
there could ever have been a right person for you?"
"My God, yes!" he answered, with a sudden fire. "I suffer the tortures
of the damned sometimes because I missed my chance! There! I'm telling
you this just so that you shall think a little differently, if you can.
You and I between us have made an infernal mess of things. It was
chiefly my fault. And as regards Palliser--well, I am sorry. Only the
fellow--he may have been lovable to you, but he was a coward and a sneak
to me--and he paid. I am sorry."
She seemed a little dazed.
"You mean to tell me, Andrew," she persisted, "that there is really some
one you care for, care for in the big way--a woman who means as much to
you as your place in Parliament--your ambition?"
"More," he declared vigorously.
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