"You thought that I was false! But--it is madness! It is a foolish dream!"
"Do not look so utterly dismayed. You said that you would not be vexed, you know. Besides, now it is another thing."
"Another thing! But--Lily, tell me exactly what it is that you have done."
"I will tell you just exactly what it is that I have done. To begin, then. You see, I have not been happy--ever since you went away."
"You foolish maid! And yet you wisest of them all."
"I waited--oh, Will, I waited such a weary time! I thought that you would write, or--or do something that you never did. And at last I began to think that waiting was in vain. And when I was in the most hopeless of my hopeless moods--it was no further back than yesterday, yet it seemed years ago!"--she put forth her hand and touched his arm, and he laughed beneath his breath--"a letter came from Mr. Ash. He said that Mr. Ely was coming here. I showed the letter to my aunt. She seemed to take it for granted that I would do exactly what my guardian wished me to--as though it were a decree that was written in the skies. So when he came, and asked me to be his wife--just out of spite and wickedness I said I would. He never asked me if I loved him; he never pretended even to love me. It was just a bargain: I was to be his wife."
"My little love! What is it you have done? And now, pray, what is it that you mean to do?"
"I shall write and tell him I have changed my mind."
"Changed your mind! What do you suppose that he will say to that?"
"Why, what can he say? It is like a commercial treaty which is in the air. There are some of the clauses to which I am unable to agree. So I withdraw from the negotiations and refuse to sign."