“Well,” said Florence, “now that you have put your guardian angel on her pedestal, I think that we must be going home. Will any of you walk a little way with us?”
Dorothy said that they would all come—that is, all except Mr. Cardus, who had gone back to his office. Accordingly they started, and as they did so, Florence intimated to Ernest that she wished to speak to him. He was alarmed and disappointed, for he was afraid of Florence, and wished to walk with Eva, and presumably his face betrayed what was in his mind to her.
“Do not be frightened,” she said, with a slight smile; “I am not going to say anything disagreeable.”
Of course he replied that he knew that she never could say anything disagreeable at any time; at which she smiled again the same faint smile, and they dropped behind.
“Ernest,” she said presently, “I want to speak to you. You remember what happened between us two evenings ago on this very beach;” for they were walking home by the beach.
“Yes, Florence, I remember,” answered Ernest.
“Well, Ernest, the words I have to say are hard for a woman’s lips, but I must say them. I made a mistake, Ernest, in telling you that I loved you as I did, and in talking all the wild nonsense that I talked. I don’t know what made me do it—some foolish impulse, no doubt. Women are very curious, you know, Ernest, and I think that I am more curious than most. I suppose I thought I loved you, Ernest—I know I thought it when you kissed me; but last night, when I saw you at the Smythes’ dance, I knew that it was all a mistake, and that I cared for you—no more than you cared for me, Ernest. Do you understand me?”
He did not understand her in the least, but he nodded his head, feeling vaguely that things were turning out very well for him.
“That is all right; and so here, in the same place where I said them, I renounce them. We will forget all that foolish scene, Ernest. I made a little mistake when I told you that my heart was as deep as the sea; I find that it is shallow as a brook. But will you answer me one question, Ernest, before we close this conversation?”
“Yes, Florence, if I can.”