"I am sorry to have disappointed you; but I thought it best that we should meet here."
"But why? I don't understand."
"They say that rich people are obtuse. I did not want to see your riches, nor for you to behold the poverty of my land."
"Charlotte!"
"Please don't think me very hard, but I would rather you did not say Charlotte."
"You would rather I did not say Charlotte?"
Two large tears of surprise and pain filled Miss Harman's gray eyes. But such a great flood of weeping was so near the surface with the other woman that she dared not look at her.
"I would rather you did not say Charlotte," she repeated, "for we call those whom we love and are friendly with by their Christian names."
"I thought you loved me. You said so. You can't take back your own words."
"I don't want to. I do love you in my heart. I feel I could love you devotedly; but for all that we can never be friends."