“I mean that perhaps I made a mistake,” I said, beginning to hesitate—“that perhaps, that night at Mount Prospect, I was wrong in what I said to you——”
“You’re humbugging me!” he said fiercely, without taking his eyes from my face. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Yes, I do know,” I answered, still with that feeling that another person was speaking for me. “I’ve thought about it before now, and I thought perhaps, if you would forgive——”
“Forgive! I don’t understand you. Do you mean to say you would marry me?”
He looked at me stupidly, and staggered to his feet as if he were drunk.
“I’m having a fine time of it!” he said, with a loud harsh laugh. “She says she’ll have me after all, and I’ve got to say ‘No, thank you!’”
He swayed a little as he stood opposite to me, and then, falling on his knees, he laid his head on my lap, and broke into a desperate sobbing.
