He laughed bitterly, and continued, "Love! That's a word which I
believe has no meaning for you at all, but it had for him. You are
a remarkably clever woman, Miss Van Tyne. You have brains in
abundance. See, I do you justice. What is more, you are beautiful
and can be so fascinating that a man who believed in you might
easily worship you. You made him believe in you. You tried to
beguile me into a condition that with my nature would be ruin
indeed. You never had the baby plea of a silly, shallow woman. I
took pains to find that out the first evening we met. In your art
of beguiling an honest, trusting man you were as perfect as you
were remorseless, and you understood exactly what you were doing."
For a time she seemed overwhelmed by his lava-like torrent of
words, and stood with bowed head and shrinking, trembling form;
but when he ceased she turned to him and said bitterly and
emphatically:
"I did NOT understand what I was doing, nor would my brain have
taught me were I all intellect like yourself. I half wish you had
left me to drown," and with a slight, despairing gesture she
turned away and did not look back.
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