After a pause:
'Mrs. Emerson will wonder where I am. Will you write to her, so that I needn't explain when I get back to-morrow?'
'I have just had an anxious letter from her, and I have already answered it.'
Thyrza withdrew her hand gently.
'I was wrong when I spoke in that way to you yesterday, Mrs. Ormonde,' she said, meeting the other's eyes. 'You haven't done me harm intentionally; I know that now. But if you had let him come to me, I don't think he would have been sorry—afterwards—when he knew I loved him. I don't think any one will love him more. I was very different two years ago, and he thinks of me as I was then. Perhaps, if he had seen me now, and spoken to me—I know I am still without education, and I am not a lady, but I could have worked very hard, so that he shouldn't be ashamed of me.'
Mrs. Ormonde turned her face away and sobbed.
'I won't speak of it again,' Thyrza said. 'You couldn't help it. And he didn't really wish to come, so it was better. I am very sorry for what I said to you, Mrs. Ormonde.'
But the other could not bear it. She kissed Thyrza's hands, her tears falling upon them, and went away.