“No! no!�
She sank back into her seat, looking at him wide-eyed and wonderingly. “Is he afraid of me?� she whispered to herself.
“I am not afraid of you,� Daymond returned almost roughly. “But you must make allowances for me at first. Your sudden coming—the surprise——�
“Ah yes! the surprise—and the joy——?�
He cleared his throat and looked another way. He was shamedly conscious that the emotion that stiffened his tongue and hampered his gestures was something widely different from joy. He spoke again, confusedly. “This seems like old times—before——�
“Before I died,� she said, “without bidding good-bye to you. Dear! if you guessed how I have longed to know what you said and did when it was all over, you would not mind telling me.... ‘Are they grieving—those whom I have left behind?’ is a question that is often asked in the place I come from. You were sorry? You cried? Ah! I know you must have cried!�
“I believe,� Daymond returned, moving restlessly in his chair, “that I did. And I—I kissed you, though the doctors told me not to. I wanted to catch the cholera and die, too, I believe!...�
“Yes?�
“And when the people came with—the coffin, I�—he bit his lip—“I would not let them touch you!...�
“My poor boy!�