'To flirt was never your wont, and I have read that the essence of flirting is that it is a stolen pleasure, the future results of which cannot be foreseen.'
'It would be tame between such old friends as you and I, Robert.'
'Tame indeed—and unnatural,' said he, huskily.
His eyes, which hitherto had been fixed upon her colourless face, now fell upon the ornament she was wearing—an ornament he had never seen before; and from its apparent value his heart too surely foreboded who the donor was; yet he disdained to refer to it, though he said, upbraidingly,
'Oh, Ellinor, how I have loved, and still love you, is known only to Heaven and myself; yet never again shall my hand touch yours; never again my arm go round you; never more shall my lips touch yours, though yearning—oh, God only knows how intensely—longing to do so once again—only once again!'
She evinced no sign of a truce in this position, and was devoutly hoping that Robert Wodrow would adopt some other rôle than that of lover.
'Robert,' she said, nervously, 'are we not friends?'
'No.'
'Can we not be friends again?'
'Friends! How can you ask me? It was, you well know, always understood,' he continued, making an effort to be calm, 'that when I could afford to marry, you, Ellinor, would be my wife. Why take all my love and give me back not an atom now?'