`` I ? Oh , no , I 'm not , Mr. Irving . Of course old friends do n't count now . Well , I 've no doubt new ones will wear just as well . '' `` If it 's about my going to see Harriet , '' said Jerome easily `` I do n't see as how it can matter much to you . Goodness knows , you took enough pains to show me you did n't want me . I do n't blame you . A woman has a right to please herself , and a man ought to have sense to take his answer and go . I had n't , and that 's where I made my mistake . I do n't mean to pester you any more , but we can be real good friends , ca n't we ? I 'm sure I 'm as much your friend as ever I was . '' Now , I hold that this speech of Jerome 's , delivered in a cool , matter-of-fact tone , as of a man stating a case with dispassionate fairness , was a masterpiece . It was the last cleverly executed movement of the campaign . If it failed to effect a capitulation , he was a defeated man . But it did not fail . Anne had got to that point where an excited woman must go mad or cry . Anne cried . She sat flatly down on a chair and burst into tears . Jerome 's hat went one way and his cane another . Jerome himself sprang across the intervening space and dropped into the chair beside Anne .
He caught her hand XXXXX his and threw his arm boldly around her waist .
If about across as in into of on that to