She clenched her hands; there was a glint of something in her eyes—but if it came from angry tears they dried before I was sure.
"I've brought this on myself," she said. "I laid myself open to it—invited familiarity and disrespect from you! The very devil must have been in me to so utterly forget myself! Now I've got to pay for it—pay for it in bitter humiliation—witness such a scene as I have just witnessed—and then stand here and hear you tell me that—that you are in love with me!—endure what you say——"
Suddenly it became clear to me what Clelia had meant when she said that Thusis was afraid of me.
"Thusis," said I, "you won't have to listen to any more of that from me. I shall not tell you again that I care for you. And anyway, in a little while it will no longer be true. Because I shall get over it."
She looked up.
"And I want you to know that I am not angry. And even if I were I want you to understand that you need not be afraid of my resentment."
"I am not!" she flashed out.
"You are! You are afraid that I might be the sort of creature to revenge wounded amour propre by proving faithless to the confidence you gave me. Don't worry," I added angrily, "because I'd cut my tongue out or face a firing squad before I'd utter one word to anybody concerning what you told me about your mission here."
There was a silence. Then Thusis' smile came back, a trifle tremulously:
"You silly boy!" she said. "Did you think I was afraid of that!"