The question is what will the
next one be."
"Why should it be that?"
"I don't know. Life seems but a series of betrayals. There are so
many kinds of them. This was a betrayed plan, but one can betray
confidence, and hope and--desire, and the most sacred . . ."
"But what are you doing here?" she interrupted.
"Oh, yes! The eternal why. Till a few hours ago I didn't know
what I was here for. And what are you here for?" I asked point
blank and with a bitterness she disregarded. She even answered my
question quite readily with many words out of which I could make
very little. I only learned that for at least five mixed reasons,
none of which impressed me profoundly, Dona Rita had started at a
moment's notice from Paris with nothing but a dressing-bag, and
permitting Rose to go and visit her aged parents for two days, and
then follow her mistress. That girl of late had looked so
perturbed and worried that the sensitive Rita, fearing that she was
tired of her place, proposed to settle a sum of money on her which
would have enabled her to devote herself entirely to her aged
parents. And did I know what that extraordinary girl said? She
had said: "Don't let Madame think that I would be too proud to
accept anything whatever from her; but I can't even dream of
leaving Madame.
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