“Are you disappointed in me? Have I changed?”
“Oh, no,” she said sorrowfully, “you have not changed—not since I have known you this time. It is like this, as if I were blind when I knew you before, and I loved you for what you were to me; but as I could not see you, I loved you for what I imagined you to be, and now, I am not blind, my eyes are wide, wide open, and I look at you and wonder ‘where is the one I knew?’ I do not know you; you are a stranger to me; I would love you if I could; I can not say yes and not love you. I have never told any one, but I may tell you now. While you were away at St. Louis, I promised to marry some one; he had loved me all my life, and I was so heart-broken because of the mistake that I had made about you; and I wanted some one to care for me, so that I might forget how I loved somebody that did not love me. And then I was wild when I knew what I had done! I did not love him; I felt as if I were bound in iron; I shall never forget that. I do not want to feel bound in iron to you. Why did you not ask me last year when you knew how I cared for you?”
He dropped his eyes, the hot color flushing even to his forehead. “I could not—sincerely.”
“Why did you act as if you liked me?”
“I did like you. I did not love you. I did not understand. I can not tell you how unhappy I was when I found that you had misunderstood me. I would not have hurt you for all the universe; I did not dream that you could misunderstand me; I was attracted to you; I did not know that I manifested any stronger feeling. Surely you have forgiven me.”
“Yes, I have forgiven you; I did not really blame you; I knew that you did not understand. You are a stupid fellow about women.—You are only a stupid, dear, big boy.”
“But you do not answer me.”
“I have answered you. Do you ask me sincerely now?” she asked curiously.
“You know I do,” he said angrily.
“Do you ask me because Miss Gerard has refused you?” with a flash of merriment crossing her face.