“Why, indeed? You may well ask,” replied Captain Chancellor, in a bitter, contemptuous tone.
Then he turned and left the room. He put down all she had said to “temper,” of course; but some of her words had wounded and mortified him not a little.
Eugenia stood there where he had left her, in blank, bewildered misery. Only one thought glanced with any brightness through the black cloud of wretchedness which seemed to choke her.
“He did love me once,” she said to herself. “If all the rest was a dream, still he did love me once.”
And but for this, she thought she must have died.
Volume Three—Chapter Four.
“By the Spring.”
Life, that dares send
A challenge to his end,
And when it comes, say, “Welcome, friend.”
Crashaw.