"I'm quite ready to go."
"Oh, I'm sure of that! It's comforting to remember that you're so resolute and matter-of-fact. You wouldn't let troubles daunt you—perhaps you would scarcely notice them when you had made up your mind."
The man smiled, rather wistfully. He could feel things keenly, and he had his romance; but Sylvia resumed:
"I sometimes wonder if you ever felt really badly hurt?"
"Once," he said quietly. "I think I have got over it."
"Ah!" she murmured. "I was afraid you would blame me, but now it seems that Dick knew you better than I did. When he made you my trustee, he said that you were too big to bear him malice."
The blood crept into George's face.
"After the first shock had passed, and I could reason calmly, I don't think I blamed either of you. You had promised me nothing; Dick was a brilliant man, with a charm everybody felt. By comparison, I was merely a plodder."
Sylvia mused for a few moments.
"George," she said presently, "I sometimes think you're a little too diffident. You plodders who go straight on, stopping for nothing, generally gain your object in the end."