“I don’t want you to be my friend!” he exclaimed, almost roughly. “Good God! as if I should put myself out, and go to the lengths I have, just to gain a friend!” He gave a little harsh laugh. “A friend, indeed!—no, I don’t want your friendship, listen, Paddy—” the hands gripping hers tightened, and she saw in the dim light that he was very white, and his eyes gleamed strangely, and masterful resolve filled his face. “It is a wife I want—not a friend—and a wife I mean to have. This feud is nonsense. It is mere obstinacy now. If I behaved wrongly to Eileen I am sorry. I can’t say any more, and you can see for yourself it was a good thing we never got engaged. Are you going to let an ancient thing like that come between us—punish two people for a third one who is unhurt? I say ‘two,’ because I know I could make you happy, if you would drop this—this—prejudice, and be your old self again.”
While he was speaking Paddy herself turned very pale and for a moment there was a bewildered expression in her eyes, as she continued to gaze fixedly before her. Then once again she rallied her forces for a final blow. She wrenched her hands from his and faced him squarely.
“You must be mad!” she said. “You can’t know what you are talking about. How many times am I to tell you that I hate you?—Listen! hate you—hate you. I do not know what you mean by a prejudice. I know that you dared to trifle with one of my house—I know that you nearly broke my sister’s heart—I know that you are heartless, and cruel, and selfish—and then you talk to me of love and marriage,”—she paused for very indignation.
“Yes, I do,” he interrupted decisively, “and I shall again, in spite of your kind summing up.”
“Then thank goodness you are going away, and, at least, we shall not meet any more for a long time!”
“Who told you I was going away!”
“Don’t you always go away in the summer?—and besides the others are leaving for Mourne Lodge directly.”
“And what if they are?”
“You must go somewhere.”
“Certainly. I am going to Mourne Lodge with them.”