If it is as bad as you make out I
will give you my word not to see Madeleine again. And as I shall be
too busy for Society it will quickly forget me."
"Oh, no, it will not. It will say that you are both cleverer than
you have been in the past. If you leave San Francisco--California
--for good and all--it may forget you; not otherwise."
"Do you know that you are asking me to give up my career? That I
shall never have such an opportunity in my life again? My whole
future--for usefulness as well as for the realization of my not
ignoble ambitions--lies in San Francisco and nowhere else?"
"Don't imagine I have not thought of that. And San Francisco can ill
afford to spare you. You are one of the greatest assets this city
ever had. But she will have to do without you even if you never can
be replaced. I had the whole history of the affair from Mrs. McLane
this afternoon. No one believes--yet--that things have reached a
climax between you and Madeleine. On the contrary, they are expecting
an elopement. But if you remain, nothing on God's earth can prevent
an abominable scandal. Madeleine's name will be dragged through the
mud. She will be cut, cast out of Society. Even I could not protect
her; I should be regarded as a blind fool, or worse, for it will be
known that Mrs.
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