"
There is a certain ring in a truthful statement
that overcomes all doubts. Lucy felt this before
Max had finished. She felt, too, with a sudden thrill,
that she still held him. Then there came the instantaneous
desire to wipe out all traces of the outburst
and keep his good-will.
"And you swear it?" she asked, her belief already
asserting itself in her tones, her voice falling
to its old seductive pitch.
"On my honor as a man," he answered simply.
For a time she remained silent, her mind working
behind her mask of eyes and lips, the setting sun
slanting across the beach and lighting up her face
and hair, the grays splashing the suds with their
impatient feet. Max kept his gaze upon her. He
saw that the outbreak was over and that she was a
little ashamed of her tirade. He saw, too, man of the
world as he was, that she was casting about in her
mind for some way in which she could regain for herself
her old position without too much humiliation.
"Don't say another word, little woman," he said
in his kindest tone. "You didn't mean a word of
it; you haven't been well lately, and I oughtn't to
have left you. Tighten up your reins; we'll drive
on if you don't mind.
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