Lotte was, indeed, surprised to see him enter; her heart commenced beating violently, and perhaps her cheeks and lips turned a little pale, but she did not betray any other emotion; on the contrary, she was very cold and distant in her manner, giving him somewhat decidedly to understand that his presence was an unlooked-for intrusion.
He bit his lips and felt angry—he thought she ought to have been glad to see him again, and he drew himself stiffly up. All he had arranged to say fled at once from his memory, and he felt himself completely in a false position.
As he did not speak, and Lotte thought she had waited long enough for him to commence, she inquired of him, in a voice slightly tremulous, the object of his visit. This she did in such a tone that it vibrated through his frame, and he replied instantly—
“I have felt, Miss Clinton, since our last interview, that I have a duty to perform to you. I have an apology to offer, and an acknowledgment to make. Our last meeting was very unsatisfactory”—he paused.
“To me!” ejaculated Lotte, thoughtfully.
“And to me!” he subjoined.
There was another pause, then he proceeded—
“I am impelled to say that, at our last interview, I, by implication, challenged you with conduct which I have since reason to believe was, on my part, a rash and hasty proceeding.”
“Rash and hasty, sir!” echoed Lotte, excitedly; “it was cruelly unjust.”
A gleam of satisfaction brightened Mark’s eyes, as she uttered those words, and he said, earnestly—