"If that fear has prevented you from putting the question to which you have so long desired an answer, pray ask it forthwith."
"I think it has almost answered itself," said Diamond, bending over her, and turning his chair so as to cut her and himself off still more from the others. "I was going to ask you if I had unwittingly offended you in any way, or if my frequent presence here were, for any reason, irksome to you? It might well be so. And if you would say so candidly, believe me, I should feel not the smallest resentment. Sorrow I should feel. I can't deny it; but I should not cease to regard you as I have always regarded you from the beginning of our acquaintance. How highly that is, I have not the gift to tell; nor do you love the direct, broadly-spoken praise that sounds like flattery, be it ever so sincere."
"No; please don't praise me," said Minnie, huskily. She was shadowed by his figure as he sat beside her, and so he did not see the tears that quivered in her eyes. After a second or two, during which she had passed her handkerchief quickly, almost stealthily, across her face, she said, "But your question, you say, has answered itself."
"I hope so; I hope I may believe that there is nothing wrong between us."
"Nothing."
"I have not offended you in any way!"
"No."
"Nor unwittingly hurt you? I daresay I am awkward and abrupt sometimes."
"Pray believe that I have nothing in the world to blame you for."
"Thank you. I know you speak sincerely. Your friendship is very precious to me."