His face grew red; it had been white a moment ago.
“You don’t believe me?” he said.
“I do not! Let me pass, if you please, Mr. Bradstone.”
“But I say it’s true!” he exclaimed; “I say he consented! He’s ready to accept me for a son-in-law if you’ll say ‘Yes,’ and——” He paused. “I think you will say ‘Yes,’ with all your cursed pride!”
The word slipped from him, and he would have recalled it the moment after he had uttered it.
But its effect upon Olivia was not what he expected.
“You are right, Mr. Bradstone,” she said, quietly; “I am proud, and apt to forget that others have as much pride as I have. I beg your pardon again. You have misunderstood my father; I am sure of that——”
“No, I haven’t,” he put in.
“I know my father,” she said, as quietly as before, “and it is impossible that he should have—have spoken as you say he did. Let there be an end of this. I thank you for the honor—it is an honor for any woman to receive an offer from a man—I thank you, and beg you to believe that it is impossible that I should accept it.”
“Why?” he persisted.