I think almost any woman
would feel justified in putting off the crisis.''
``You mean, I might tell him I'd give him my answer
when I was independent and had paid back.''
Cyrilla nodded. Mildred relit her cigarette, which
she had let go out. ``I had thought of that,'' said she.
``But--I doubt if he'd tolerate it. Also''--she
laughed with the peculiar intonation that accompanies
the lifting of the veil over a deeply and carefully hidden
corner of one's secret self--``I am afraid. If I don't
marry him, in a few weeks, or months at most, he'll
probably find out that I shall never be a great singer,
and then I'd not be able to marry him if I wished to.''
``He IS a temptation,'' said Cyrilla. ``That is, his
money is--and he personally is very nice.''
``I married a man I didn't care for,'' pursued
Mildred. ``I don't want ever to do that again. It is--
even in the best circumstances--not agreeable, not as
simple as it looks to the inexperienced girls who are
always doing it.''
``Still, a woman can endure that sort of thing,'' said
Mrs.
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