On his part was the fullest denial of any purpose whatever, in the late misunderstanding, to bend her to his will.

He assured her that if he had dreamed of any serious objection on her part to the ride, he would not have urged it for a moment.

It involved no promised pleasure to him apart from pleasure to her; and it was because he believed that she would enjoy the drive that he had urged her to make one of the party.
All this was well, as far as it could go.

But repentance and mutual forgiveness did not restore everything to the old condition--did not obliterate that one sad page in their history, and leave them free to make a new and better record.

If the folly had been in private, the effort at forgiving and forgetting would have been attended with fewer annoying considerations.