"Good Heavens! Geraldine!"
"Well," she said, with tears in her eyes and petulant anger in her voice, "so you have never had the grace to come and apologize for insulting me as you did last week?"
"For mercy's sake do not trifle with me."
"Trifle! No, indeed!" interrupted the young lady. "Your behavior was no trifle, and it will be a very long time before I forgive it, if ever I do."
"Stay—wait a moment."
"How can you ask me, when, five days ago, you bid me never come near you with my cursed coquetries again?" asked Geraldine, trying, and vainly, to get the bridle out of his grasp.
"God forgive me! I did not know what I said. What I had heard was enough to madden a colder man than I. Is it untrue?"
"Is what untrue?"
"You know well enough. Answer me, is it true or not?"
"How can I tell what you mean? You talk in enigmas. Let me go."