Wentworth looked at her silently, with a strange feeling rising within him.
“Confess, Richard,” she went on, “that you scented something deadly to your love after he had dropped a word over those violets!”
“I understand you,” he replied, slowly, “he said something which prevented Emily from giving me the violets.”
“And that wounded you sorely,” she remarked.
“I confess it did,” he answered. “It was a very trifling thing, to be sure, but at that time it meant a great deal, and to be frank with you, Muriel, I was hurt. No matter,” he added, “there were other things for which he was not responsible, which hurt me far more. I cannot now be hurt again.”
“But consider,” said Muriel, quietly. “If that morning Emily had given you the flowers, the gift would have gone far to reconcile you to her. Would it not?”
“It would,” cried Wentworth, vehemently. “One little act of kindness from her to me at that time, would have made me forget all her former slights, and try to win her to me again. But, Muriel, why dwell on this? It was her intention to trifle with me from the first. Come, I must not talk of her. Let it all go. It amounts to nothing.”
“It amounts to just this,” she replied, coolly. “That Mr. Witherlee was interested in your affairs to the extent of making fresh dissension between you and Emily, and that he widened a breach already made. Now do you imagine his interest extended no further than that moment? But, Richard, tell me frankly, how did your difference with Emily arise!”
“Muriel,” he replied solemnly, “as Heaven is my witness, I do not know. I never did anything to cause it. I left her here one afternoon, and I was happy, for though I thought she loved me before, I was never sure of it till then, when we met in the first embrace, the first kiss, and the last, she ever gave me. Witherlee appeared at the parlor door, and retreated again for a minute or so. Then you came into the parlor from the conservatory, and he entered at the same moment. You will recollect that afternoon—you brought in a bunch of flowers, and as he came in you held out the bouquet to him, which he took from your hand. Do you remember?”
Muriel nodded.