She stood where she was, her hands at her side, looking steadfastly
at him.
"Why?" she said. "Because--because--the fact is, I've been wrong
altogether. Maggie, I'm not the sort of man for you to have anything
to do with. You don't know much about life yet, do you? I'm about
the first man you've ever met, aren't I? If you'd met another man
before me, you'd have cared for him as much."
She said nothing and he seemed to be confused by her steady gaze,
because he looked down and continued to speak as though to himself:
"I knew at once that there was danger in our meeting. With other
girls they can look after themselves. One hasn't any responsibility
to them. It's their own affair, but you believe every word a fellow
says. And if we'd been friends it wouldn't have mattered, but from
the very first we weren't that--we were something more."
"You were so different from any other girl. I've wanted to be good
to you from the beginning, but now I see that if we go on I shall
only be bad. It all comes in the end to my being bad--really bad--
and I want you to know it." "I don't know," said Maggie, "that I've
thought very much whether you're good or bad.
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