"I don't want soothing. I am not broken-hearted, and I am not your sister."
Pence sighed. "This is very, very painful."
"It is," Bella admitted readily, "to me. Surely you are man enough, Mr. Pence, to take a plain telling if you won't accept a hint. I want you to leave me at once, as I am not disposed to talk."
"If I had my way I would never, never leave you again."
"Perhaps; but, so far as I am concerned, you will not get your way."
"Why do you dislike me, Miss Huxham?"
"I neither like nor dislike you," she retorted, suppressing a violent inclination to scream, so annoying was this persecution. "You are nothing to me."
"I want to be something. I wish you to be my sealed fountain. Your late lamented father desired you to be my spouse."
"I am aware of that, Mr. Pence. But perhaps you will remember that I refused to marry you, the other day."
"You broke my heart then."