she suddenly said:
“I don’t really want to go away from you.”
Ramón looked swiftly at Cipriano, then said:
“I know you don’t.”
But the gentle protective tone of his voice only made Kate rebel again. She brimmed over with sudden tears, crying:
“You don’t really want me.”
“Yes, I want you!—Verdad! Verdad!” exclaimed Cipriano, in his low, secret, almost muttering voice.
And even amid her tears, Kate was thinking to herself: What a fraud I am! I know all the time it is I who don’t altogether want them. I want myself to myself. But I can fool them so that they shan’t find out.
For she heard the hot, phallic passion in Cipriano’s voice.
Then came the voice of Ramón, like a chill:
“It is you who don’t want,” he said,