"There is no use in our quarreling like this. I won't give you up without a further struggle, to any man. So we may as well have it out now. Do you care for that—for Ryde?"
"If you had asked me that before,—sensibly,—you might have avoided making an exhibition of yourself and saying many rude things. I don't in the least mind telling you," says Miss Beresford, coldly, "that I can't bear him."
"Oh, Monica! is this true?" asks he, in an agony of hope.
"Quite true. But you don't deserve I should say it."
"My darling! My 'one thing bright' in all this hateful world! Oh!" throwing up his head with an impatient gesture, "I have been so wretched all this evening! I have suffered the tortures of the——"
"Now, you musn't say naughty words," interrupts she, with an adorable smile. "You are glad I have forgiven you?"
This is how she puts it, and he is only too content to be friends with her on any terms, to show further fight.
"More than glad."
"And you will promise me never to be jealous again?"
This is a bitter pill, considering his former declaration that jealousy and he had nothing to do with each other; but he swallows it bravely.