It was rather hard for him to be reproached in this way, but he did not think of saying anything in self-justification.

He was ready to take blame upon himself.' He remembered no more now how she had rejected, rebuffed, and dismissed him.

He told himself that he had cruelly deserted her, and hung his head before the mother's reproaches.
The room in which they sat was the same in which he had waited that morning of the picnic, while in his presence she had put the finishing touches to her toilet.

There, above the table, hung against the wall the selfsame mirror that on that morning had given back the picture of a girl in white, with crimson braid about her neck and wrists, and a red feather in the hat so jauntily perched above the low forehead--altogether a maiden exceedingly to be desired.

Perhaps, somewhere, she was standing before a mirror at that moment.