"You had no fever, no headache, no fainting-spell?"
"No, sir."
"Then why did you absent yourself?"
"I felt unhappy, and shrank from seeing any one: especially strange guests."
"Unhappy? About what?"
"My heart ached, and I wished to be alone."
"Heart-ache, so early? However, you are in your seventeenth year, quite old enough, I suppose, for the premonitory symptoms. What gave you heart-ache?"
She was silent.
"You feared my displeasure, knowing I had cause to feel offended, when making a pretence of deferring to my wishes, you hurried away from my office, just as I was returning to it? Why did you not wait?"
"I was afraid you would refuse your permission, and I wanted so very much to go to Mrs. Mason's."