“Yes, I know. But you will answer me now, won’t you?”
“Let me see; what was it?”
Philip hesitated. “Some way, I think you know, don’t you? I asked you if you thought that I cared for Ann Maria.”
“You said ‘especially’.”
“Yes, I thought you would remember!”
“I have been trying to think, Philip, how I would answer that. Because, you see, I should not have asked the first question. I did think, Philip,” continued Lilian, honestly, “that you must care for her, or that there had been some special affection between you.”
“Was it anything that I did?” asked Philip.
“It was more her manner, a sort of taking possession of you. But I must apologize for referring to it at all. It isn’t any of my affair.”
“Oh, it isn’t?” said Philip hopelessly. “Then you didn’t suppose I meant anything when I talked to you in the pine grove at Merrymeeting, or other times?”
“I—I didn’t know—what to think about it all.”