"I'm afraid he's dangerously liable to be serious about her."
"'Dangerously,' Miss Orbison? You mean it might be dangerous for him to care for a rather flirtatious and light-headed young creature who doesn't care for him?"
"No. It's because she does care for him."
Rennie looked astonished. "You think she does?"
"She's as much as told me so, and she was in earnest. She cares for him as deeply as it's in her nature to care at her age, I'm quite positive; and that's what is cruelly dangerous for Charles."
"You think he could be really in love with her, do you?"
"He's trying with all his poor broken strength not to be," she answered unhappily. "Do you understand why he tries not to be in love with her? Do you understand why he mustn't be, Mr. Rennie?"
"A little—perhaps," he said doubtfully. "But it's the very breath of romance to believe that the happiness found in mutual love makes even tragedy celestial."
Miss Orbison projected an audible sniff from her nostrils. "Yes; it's the 'very breath of romance,'
