‘I have nothing at all to say to you.’
‘Well, then I will talk.—Come this way; there’s a quiet place where no one will notice us.’
Nancy kept her eyes resolutely averted from him; he, the while, searched her face with eagerness, as well as the faint rays of the nearest lamp allowed it.
‘If you have anything to say, you must say it here.’
‘It’s no use, then. Go your way, and I’ll go mine.’
He turned, and walked slowly in the direction of Dean’s Yard. There was the sound of a step behind him, and when he had come into the dark, quiet square, Nancy was there too.
‘Better to be reasonable,’ said Tarrant, approaching her again. ‘I want to ask you why you answered a well-meant letter with vulgar insult?’
‘The insult came from you,’ she answered, in a shaking voice.
‘What did I say that gave you offence?’
‘How can you ask such a question? To write in that way after never answering my letter for months, leaving me without a word at such a time, making me think either that you were dead or that you would never let me hear of you again—’