"You see these things in Christina?"
"In a different way," he smiled. It was almost a very clever smile.
Milly might have felt startled at it had he not gone on very simply:—"One sees that she is such a thoroughly good sort; so loyal; she would go through thick and thin for anyone she cared about; and so kind, as you say; she would talk as nicely to a dull person as to a clever one; she'd never snub one or make one feel a duffer."
For a moment Milly was silent. "Do you mean that I used to snub you—and make you feel a duffer?" she then asked.
"Oh, I say, Milly!" Dick, genuinely distressed, looked his negative. "You didn't suppose?——"
"I know that I was often horrid."
"Well, if you were, you didn't suppose I'd tell you in that roundabout fashion. Besides, all that's done with long ago." He looked away from her now and down at the floor.
Again Milly was silent. Strangely to herself, she felt her eyes fill with tears. She waited to conquer them before saying very gently: "Dick, do forgive me for having been so horrid."
He stared up at her. "Forgive you, Milly?" The request seemed to leave him speechless.
She was able to smile at him. "You do?"