“But you talk as if these things always lay within our power! I didn’t purposely fall in love with you—I simply couldn’t help myself! And into the other affair I had been more or less entrapped.”
“Yes,” she replied, with some scorn, “and three months hence you will be saying exactly the same thing to the next girl.”
“I shall never speak to any one again,” I answered, solemnly and truly, “as I am speaking now to you. You can believe me or not, as you please, but I can never think of any one as I think of you, and I never have. If you will only think of me kindly, and try to make excuses for me; if you will only consult your own heart a little—”
“I mustn’t allow myself to be turned round by a few soft speeches,” said Lucy, looking almost frightened and rising before I could prevent her. “You have hurt me very much, and I don’t know that my feelings will ever alter, or that I should allow them to.”
“But you will let me see you again?” I humbly entreated.
“I don’t know. Certainly not for some little time.”
“I may write to you?”
“No, certainly not!”
“This is all very poor comfort, Lucy,” I groaned, “after the journey I have taken on purpose to see you and make it all right.”
“What other comfort do you deserve, Mr. Blacker?” she asked me, haughtily, and immediately moved away from the seat towards her young ladies.