'Don't say what it pains you to say,' Gilbert spoke, when her words failed. 'It will pain me even more. Speak to me like an old friend, Miss Trent.'
'Can you still feel like a friend to me?'
'I don't change much,' he said. 'And it would be a great change that would make me have any but friendly thoughts of you.'
She raised her face.
'I behaved so cruelly to you. If I could hope that you would forgive that——'
A sob broke her voice.
'Don't talk of forgiveness!' Gilbert replied, with less self-control. 'I have never thought a hard thought of you. I can't bear to hear you speak in that voice to me.'
The tenderness he had concealed found expression in the last words. Her wonderful new beauty, the humility of her bowed head, her tears, overcame the show he had made of easy friendliness. He saw her eyes turned to him again, and this time he met their gaze.
'Do you know all of my life since I left you?' Thyrza asked. 'Lyddy knows how I have lived all the time, from that day to this. Has she told you?'
'Yes, she has told me.'