Ca n't you , dear ? '' `` I ca n't marry you , '' said Lynde desperately . She leaned against a slim white bole of a young birch behind her and looked at him wretchedly . `` Wo n't you please go away and forget me ? '' `` I ca n't forget you , '' Alan said , smiling a little in spite of his suffering . `` You are the only woman I can ever love -- and I ca n't give you up unless I have to . Wo n't you be frank with me , dear ? Do you honestly think you can never learn to love me ? '' `` It is not that , '' said Lynde in a hard , unnatural voice . `` I am married already . '' Alan stared at her , not in the least comprehending the meaning of her words . Everything -- pain , hope , fear , passion -- had slipped away from him for a moment , as if he had been stunned by a physical blow . He could not have heard aright . `` Married ? '' he said dully . `` Lynde , you can not mean it ? '' `` Yes , I do . I was married three years ago . '' `` Why was I not told this ? '' Alan 's voice was stern , although he did not mean it to be so , and she shrank and shivered .
Then she began XXXXX a low monotonous tone from which all feeling of any sort seemed to have utterly faded .
against although at for from in of that to unless