Her innocent archness dealt him a stab sharper than any he had known since the day of his hearing of her engagement. He muttered of his calculations being human; he was as much of a fool as other men—more!
'Oh! no,' said she.
'Positively.'
'I cannot think it.'
'I know it.'
'Mr. Redworth, you will never persuade me to believe it.'
He knocked a rising groan on the head, and rejoined 'I hope I may not have to say so to-night.'
Diana felt the edge of the dart. 'And meditating railways, you scored our poor land of herds and flocks; and night fell, and the moon sprang up, and on you came. It was clever of you to find your way by the moonbeams.'
'That's about the one thing I seem fit for!'
'But what delusion is this, in the mind of a man succeeding in everything he does!' cried Diana, curious despite her wariness. 'Is there to be the revelation of a hairshirt ultimately?—a Journal of Confessions? You succeeded in everything you aimed at, and broke your heart over one chance miss?'