"You shall tell me." He spoke more imperiously than he knew.
"I can't, indeed I can't."
"No," he said; "it would be a difficult thing to say, I admit."
"Couldn't we read something?" said Rose.
"No, no use at all. I am going to tell you why you are so glad I am short-sighted."
"But I am not glad."
"I repeat that you are, and this is the reason why."
"You shall not say it," said Rose, now more and more distressed and embarrassed.
"It's because you never knew before why I did not volunteer for the war, that is why you are so glad." "Yes," he thought in anger, "she has had this thing against me all the time; it is one of the defences she has set up." But he was hurt all the same—hurt and angry; he wanted to punish her. "So all the time you have thought this of me?"
"No, indeed, indeed, Edmund, it wasn't that. I never meant that; I knew you were never that, do believe me."