"Please do not talk about it, Ronald. What is the use? I have said all
there is to say, I am sure."
"But I have not," he answered, insisting. "Please, Joe dearest, think
about it seriously. Think what a cruel thing it is you are doing." His
voice was very tender, but he was perfectly calm; there was not the
slightest vibration of passion in the tones. Joe did not wholly
understand; she only knew that he was not satisfied with the first
explanation she had given him, and that she felt sorry for him, but was
incapable of changing her decision.
"Must I go over it all again?" she asked piteously. "Did I not make it
clear to you, Ronald? Oh--don't talk about it!"
"You have no heart, Joe," said Ronald hotly. "You don't know what you make
me suffer. You don't know that this sort of thing is enough to wreck a
man's existence altogether. You don't know what you are doing, because you
have no heart--not the least bit of one."
"Do not say that--please do not," Joe entreated, looking at him with
imploring eyes, for his words hurt her.
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