CHAPTER IX.
CAPTAIN AYLMER'S PROMISE TO HIS AUNT.
What had Captain Aylmer meant by telling her that they might be the dearest friends--by saying so much as that, and then saying no more?
Of course Clara asked herself that question as soon as she was alone in her bedroom, after leaving Captain Aylmer below.

And she made two answers to herself--two answers which were altogether distinct and contradictory one of the other.

At first she decided that he had said so much and no more because he was deceitful--because it suited his vanity to raise hopes which he had no intention of fulfilling--because he was fond of saying soft things which were intended to have no meaning.

This was her first answer to herself.
But in her second she accused herself as much as she had before accused him.

She had been cold to him, unfriendly, and harsh.