What a hideous, degrading and unjust accusation lay in that exclamation! Should he submit to it unrevenged?
Was she as innocent as she was haughty and cold?
What was she doing in the viridarium at midnight ?--For she must have been there before that ill-starred dog flew at Mandane.

An assignation with the owner of the shoes his mother had found was out of the question, for they belonged to some man about the stables.

Love, thought he, for a wonder had nothing to do with it; but as he came in he had noticed a man crossing the court-yard who looked like Paula's freedman, Hiram the trainer.

Probably she had arranged a meeting with her stammering friend in order--in order ?--Well, there was but one thing that seemed likely: She was plotting to fly from his parents' house and needed this man's assistance.
He had seen within a few hours of his return that his mother did not make life sweet to the girl, and yet his father had very possibly opposed her wish to seek another home.

But why should she avoid and hate him?
In that expedition on the river and on their way home he could have sworn that she loved him, and the remembrance of those hours brought her near to him again, and wiped out his schemes of vengeance against her, of punishment to be visited on her.