Clark's expression was so puzzled that Livingstone thought he had not understood him.
"'The Princess with the Golden Locks,'" he explained.
"Mr. Livingstone!—I—I don't understand." He looked dazed.
Livingstone broke out suddenly: "Clark, I have been a brute, a cursed brute!"
"Oh! Mr. Liv—!"
With a gesture of sharp dissent Livingstone cut him short.
"It is no use to deny it, Clark,—I have—I have!—I have been a brute for years and I have just awakened to the fact!" He spoke in bitter, impatient accusation. "I have been a brute for years and I have just realized it."
The face of the other had softened.
"Oh, no, Mr. Livingstone, not that. You have always been just—and—just;" he protested kindly. "You have always—"
—"Been a brute," insisted Livingstone, "a blind, cursed, selfish, thoughtless—"