It was all out then! Fan stood still and white while he was scarlet and trembling. Both were surprised with a deep solemn awe, as if amazed to have reached such a point.
“I didn’t mean to tell you so soon. I had hardly put it into shape myself. But when I saw that Winthrop Ogden hanging round after you, I knew it all then just like a flash. And why shouldn’t it be? They have enough at home without you. And it would be so sweet! I should think of nothing but your happiness. I dreamed it all out on the porch last night, sitting alone with father.”
His eyes and voice were alike imploring, and he had spoken so rapidly that it carried her right along. Now she put up her hand with a gesture of pain.
“Oh, Dick, dear Dick, I am so sorry! I never thought of this!”
“Well!” with a kind of manly assurance, “think of it now. I will be patient. We can ask your mother and see what she says.”
“Dick, I had better tell you just the truth. I am sorry there is any need to say it. I like you very much in the pleasant, sisterly fashion that has grown up between us. I do not believe it can ever be any different. So it is best not to hope, not to plan—”
“Oh, Fanny, I cannot help it. How could I stop all at once?”
She was touched to the heart. What should she do? The tears came into her eyes.
“I must have acted very wrongly to make you care so much for me in this way. I can never, never forgive myself.”
He could not bear to hear the woman he loved blamed, and the tears conquered him.