“I have long been waiting for this chance,” said Madison; “and, now that it has come, I intend to make the most of it, and you shall not be allowed to escape until you have explained matters. I felt that I was staying out of town for some good reason to-day, and now it is explained. It was to see you. I want to know why you always try to avoid me. Have I ever done anything to make you dislike me?”
“Never!” replied Victoria, with such emphasis that there was no doubting her sincerity.
“Then why do you run away whenever I come within speaking distance?”
“I should think you would know,” said she. “It is because you were the man who bought that etching.”
“But I don’t see the connection,” said Roger. “Why should that make you wish to avoid me? You didn’t cheat me. The etching was worth all I gave you for it. It was simply a matter of business. If you feel that you must avoid all the people you have ever transacted any business with—”
“But it wasn’t worth all that you gave me for it,” cried Victoria, turning towards him her flushed and troubled face, and, in her excitement, allowing her feet to slip down into the bottom of the boat. “It wasn’t! That is just it! You gave me more than you should have done; and I accepted it, which was dreadful! When I came home and told the girls about it, Honor hoped that I should never see you again. She felt very badly about it, and so did I. I didn’t dare tell them that it was you. That is the reason I ran away the day we went to call on your sister and I saw you in the parlor. The girls couldn’t understand it, and have never been able to since.”
“Then they don’t know it yet?”
“No. I have never dared tell them.”
“Then don’t tell them now, will you? It might prejudice them against me.”
“I won’t if I can help it,” said Victoria. “They asked me last night about it, and said that Sophy repeated something I said yesterday afternoon. I think I should have told them then if Katherine hadn’t heard that noise in the shrubbery just at that minute, and we were interrupted.”