“I hope you’ll remain as long as you choose.”
He did not reply. She sat down again and pretended to read. In a little while he began to speak. His voice reached her as if from a long way off.
“Will you never forgive me for what I did the other day?”
She answered without looking at him, her back still turned.
“Can it matter to you if I forgive or not?”
“You have not pity. I told you then how sorry I was that a sudden uncontrollable pain drove me to do a thing which immediately I bitterly regretted. Don’t you think it must have been hard for me, under the actual circumstances, to confess my fault?”
“I wish you not to speak of it. I don’t want to think of that horrible scene.”
“If you knew how lonely I was and how unhappy, you would have a little mercy.”
His voice was strangely moved. She could not doubt now that he was sincere.
“You think me a charlatan because I aim at things that are unknown to you. You won’t try to understand. You won’t give me any credit for striving with all my soul to a very great end.”