"Do you recollect all you said, or one-half of it? You said it would be well if I hated you."
"That was very nasty of me," confesses Mona. "Yet," with a sigh, "perhaps I was right."
"Now, that is nastier," says Geoffrey; "unsay it."
"I will," says the girl, impulsively, with quick tears in her eyes. "Don't hate me, my dearest, unless you wish to kill me; for that would be the end of it."
"I have a great mind to say something uncivil to you, if only to punish you for your coldness," says Geoffrey, lightly, cheered by her evident sincerity. "But I shall refrain, lest a second quarrel be the result, and I have endured so much during these past few hours that
'As I am a Christian faithful man
I would not spend another such a night
Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days.'
From the hour I parted from you till I saw you again I felt downright suicidal."
"But you didn't cut your throat, after all," says Mona, with a wicked little grimace.
"Well, no; but I dare say I shall before I am done with you. Besides, it occurred to me I might as well have a last look at you before consigning my body to the grave."
"And an unhallowed grave, too. And so you really felt miserable when angry with me? How do you feel now?" She is looking up at him, with love and content and an adorable touch of coquetry in her pretty face.