6/8 But what a gulf between feeling this and making her understand his feeling! At length, when her sobs had ceased, he said, quietly-- "Forgive me. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." "It's all the same. It's no matter," she answered, listlessly, wiping her eyes with her hand. "I wish you would go away, though, and leave me alone. What do you want with me ?" "I want what I have always wanted: I want you for my wife." She looked at him with stupid amazement, as if the real meaning of this already once declared desire had only just distinctly reached her mind, or as if the effect of its first announcement had been quite effaced by the succeeding outburst. |