“Of course I do; my incapacity would insure that much.”
“I must say, Tony,” said she, reproachfully, “that so far as I know of Mr. Maitland's intentions towards you, they were both kind and generous. In all that he said to me, there was the delicacy of a gentleman towards a gentleman.”
“He told you, however, that I had refused his offer?”
“Yes; he said it with much regret, and I asked his leave to employ any influence I might possess over you to make you retract the refusal,—at least to think again over his offer.”
“And of course he refused you nothing?” said Tony, with a sneering smile.
“Pardon me,—he did not grant my request.”
“Then I think better of him than I did before.”
“I suspect, Tony, that, once you understood each other, you are men to be friends.”
“You mean by that to flatter me, Alice,—and of course it is great flattery; but whether it is that I am too conscious of my own inferiority, or that I have, as I feel I have, such a hearty hatred of your accomplished friend, I would detest the tie that should bind me to him. Is he coming back here?”
“I do not know.”