"You simply MUSTN'T talk like this," she cried. Then at the look in his eyes she faltered for the briefest instant. "You'll—undo all that we've done. Oh, if I had you where I could take proper care of you! If we were anywhere but here you'd see."
"I—believe you. But unfortunately we are not elsewhere."
"I'm going to take you away," she exclaimed, forcefully.
Esteban stroked her hand softly. "You can't do that, Miss Evans. You have been wonderful to me and I can't begin to express my gratitude—" Norine stirred, but he retained his grasp of her fingers, gaining courage from the contact to proceed. "I have been trying for a long time to tell you something. Will you listen?"
Norine possessed a dominant personality; she had a knack of tactfully controlling and directing situations, but of a sudden she experienced a panic-stricken nutter and she lost her air of easy confidence.
"Not now," she exclaimed, with a visible lessening of color. "Don't bother to tell me now."
"I've waited too long; I must speak."
Norine was amazed at her own confusion, which was nothing less than girlish; she had actually gone to pieces at threat of something she had long expected to hear.
"I know how tired of this work you have become," the man was saying. "I know you're eager to get back to your own work and your own life."
"Well?"