He did ask me again." "That night ?" cried Bernard.
"The night he came back from England--the last time I saw him, until to-day." "After I had denounced you ?" our puzzled hero exclaimed, frowning portentously.
"I am sorry to let you know the small effect of your words!" Bernard folded his hands together--almost devoutly--and stood gazing at her with a long, inarticulate murmur of satisfaction.
"Ah! then, I did n't injure you--I did n't deprive you of a chance ?" "Oh, sir, the intention on your part was the same!" Angela exclaimed.
"Then all my uneasiness, all my remorse, were wasted ?" he went on.
But she kept the same tone, and its tender archness only gave a greater sweetness to his sense of relief.
"It was a very small penance for you to pay." "You dismissed him definitely, and that was why he vanished ?" asked Bernard, wondering still.
"He gave me another 'chance,' as you elegantly express it, and I declined to take advantage of it." "Ah, well, now," cried Bernard, "I am sorry for him!" "I was very kind--very respectful," said Angela.

"I thanked him from the bottom of my heart; I begged his pardon very humbly for the wrong--if wrong it was--that I was doing him.

I did n't in the least require of him that he should leave Baden at seven o'clock the next morning.

I had no idea that he would do so, and that was the reason that I insisted to my mother that we ourselves should go away.

When we went I knew nothing about his having gone, and I supposed he was still there.