But once he had deceived her, and in fancy his kiss burned on her lips again—sweetest and falsest kiss the world ever knew.
She nerved herself to lift her head and drew back from him in sad surprise while he exclaimed ardently:
“You do not answer me, Jessie—may I hope, then, or——” The words died on his lips, for she interrupted reproachfully:
“Mr. Laurier, you have no right to speak such words to me—you who are going to New York to marry another girl!”
He gave a cry as if stunned, and his face drooped against his breast.
He had been forgetting Cora for many a day. This lovely girl had driven her from his memory.
Thus suddenly recalled to memory by her gently reproachful words, he groaned in agony, not daring to meet her dark, soft eyes.
“Is it not true?” she asked gently, but, looking up, he groaned angrily:
“It is Mrs. de Vries who has told you this! She was always a noted gossip!”
“Yes, she told me, but why should she not, if it is true, and you do not deny it,” she faltered, almost hoping that he could.