He went down to his buggy, but stopped and reflected; and fearing that he might have been too harsh, he turned and approached her, as she stood leaning against one of the columns of the gallery.
“Do not think me rude. I am not less your friend than formerly, though I am anxious, and doubtless appear preoccupied. Let us shake hands in peace.”
He extended his own, but the girl stood motionless, and the remorseful anguish and humiliation of her uplifted face touched his heart.
“Dr. Grey, if you really forgive and forget, prove it by taking me to ‘Solitude.’”
“Do not ask what you well know I have quite determined it is best that I should not grant.”
The spark leaped up lurid as ever, in her dilating eyes.
“You take this method to punish me for my refusal to comply with your wishes a fortnight since?”
“I have neither the right nor inclination to punish you in any respect, and you must pardon my inability to accede to a request which my judgment does not approve. Good-by.”
He put his hand into his pocket, and left her; and while she stood irresolute and disappointed, a servant summoned her to Miss Jane’s presence.