'Oh, I'm so sorry!' she cried, in dreadful distress, and the voice came from her heart and was quite her own again.
In her genuine pain for him, she took his hand in both her own, and drew it to her and looked into his eyes.
'It's all right,' he answered. 'You did not mean it. Don't distress yourself.'
There were tears in her eyes now, but they were not going to overflow. She dropped his hands.
'How splendidly good and generous you are!' Margaret cried. 'There's nobody like you, after all!'
Lushington forgot his pain in the pleasure he felt at this outburst.
'But why?' he asked, not very clear as to her reasons for praising him.
'It was the same thing the other day,' she said, 'when we upset you on the Versailles road. You were in a bad way; I don't think I remember ever seeing a man in a worse plight! I couldn't help laughing a little.'
'No,' said Lushington, 'I suppose you couldn't.'
'You had your revenge afterwards, though you did not know it,' Margaret answered.