'I will be with you to-morrow,' he repeated, as he touched her hand.
But to this there was no audible reply; she only bowed her head as she passed through the gate he held open for her, and disappeared from his sight.
CHAPTER XXXII
'I DID NOT LOVE HIM'
'When a man begins to do wrong, he cannot answer for himself how far he may be carried on. He does not see beforehand; he cannot know where he will find himself after the sin is committed. One false step forces him to another.'—Newman.
'An Italian proverb, too well known, declares that if you would succeed you must not be too good.'—Emerson.
Audrey found Michael strangely uncommunicative that evening; he hardly responded to her expressions of pleasure at seeing him again, and all her questions were answered as briefly as possible. His manner was as kind as ever; indeed, he spoke to her with more than his usual gentleness; but during dinner he seemed to find conversation difficult, and all her little jokes fell flat. She wanted to know how many pretty things he had bought, and if he had put down his name for the proof engraving of a certain picture he had longed to possess.
'Twenty guineas is nothing to you now, Michael,' she observed playfully.