Only when he at length passed from uncertain argument and pleading to scornful repudiation of the charge, did his utterances awake in the hearer the old associations of sincerity and nobleness.

How many a night Gilbert had hung on every word that fell from him! Could he speak thus and be no more than a contemptible hypocrite?
Walter paused for a few moments.

When no reply came he continued with the same warmth: 'I have told you that, on those two mornings, when she was with me in the library, no word passed between us that you might not have heard.
It is true.

But one thing I did say to her which doubtless would not have been said in your presence.

She was speaking to me as if to a superior; I begged her to let there be an end of that, and to allow me to call myself her friend.