He came forward impetuously, but seeing that May shrank back, and held up her hand as though warning him off, he stopped short. 'You are surprised to see me?' he said.
May could not answer for a minute. Then she said, 'I am indeed surprised; I had no idea that I should ever set eyes on you again.'
'That would have been your own fault,' said De Tournefort; 'it is your own fault that I have not been with you long since. You received my letter?'
May bowed her head.
'But you sent me no answer.'
'I did not think that there was any necessity for answering such a letter,' said May firmly.
'No necessity for an answer!' cried De Tournefort. 'Do you recollect what that letter contained? In it I told you that I had heard that your husband was about to claim the aid of the law, and that in a short time you were likely to be free. I told you that I had done you a grievous wrong, and that I owed you reparation, and I pledged myself, so soon as the law had given you freedom, to make you my wife.'
'I have a perfect recollection of every word of that letter, M. de Tournefort,' said May coldly, 'and you have quoted it quite correctly.'
'And yet to such a letter as that, in which a man laid himself at your feet,' said De Tournefort passionately, 'you thought fit to send no answer.'
'The answer which I should have sent would probably have been even more objectionable to you than my silence,' said May.