drew back in extreme surprise, and looked as though she had misunderstood him.
“Why—what have I said?” she asked.
“You know what you meant. You are cruel and unjust.”
There was a short pause, during which Constance seemed to be trying to grasp the situation, while George stood at the other end of the chimney-piece, staring at the pattern in the carpet. The girl’s first impulse was to leave the room, for his anger frightened and repelled her. But she was too sensible for that, and she thought she knew him too well to let such a scene pass without an explanation. She gathered all her courage and faced him again.
“Mr. Wood,” she said with a firmness he had never seen in her, “I give you my word that I meant nothing in the least unkind. It is you who are doing me an injustice. I have a right to know what you understood from my words.”
“What could you have meant?” he asked coldly. “You are, I believe, very rich. Every one knows that I am very poor. You say that I make myself think I love you——”
“Good heavens!” cried Constance. “You do not mean to say that you thought that! But I never said it, I never meant it—I would not think it——”
There was a little exaggeration in the last words. She had thought of it, and that recently, though not when she had spoken. It was enough, however. George believed her, and the cloud disappeared from his face. It was she who took his hand first, and the grasp was almost affectionate in its warmth.
“You will never think that of me?” he asked earnestly.
“Never—forgive me if any word of mine could have seemed to mean that I did.”
“Thank you,” he answered. “It is only my own folly, of course, and I am the one to be forgiven. Things may be different some day.”
“Yes,” assented Constance with a little hesitation, “some day.”
A moment later George left the house, feeling as a soldier does who has been under fire for the first time.
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