"This is a very painful meeting"—Captain Knowlton said, after a silence which would have been longer if he had dared to let it be so.
"No"—said Diana, looking at him with as clear and fair a brow as if she had been the moon goddess whose name she bore; and her voice was very sweet. "Not painful, Evan; why should it be? I am glad to see you again."
"I didn't know you were here"—he went on hurriedly, in evident great perturbation.
"And we did not know you were here. I had no notion of it—till I heard your voice in the next room. I knew it instantly."
"I would have spared you this, if I could have foreseen it."
"Spared me what?"
"All this,—this pain,—I know it must be pain to you.—I did not anticipate it."
"Why should it be pain to me?" inquired Diana steadily.
"I know your feeling—I would not have brought Clara into your presence"—
"I am very glad to have seen her," said Diana in the same quiet way, looking at Evan fixedly. "I should have been glad to see more of her, and learn to know her. I could scarcely speak to her for the crowd around."