You have no right." She caught her breath sharply, and then went on with inexcusable harshness: "Even if there hadn't been any one else, I should never--I could never in the world--" Her loss of self-control gave him an advantage, which he was either too generous or too stupid to perceive.

"Well, forget all about it.

I am going now," he answered quietly.
While she watched him moving away from her, she was conscious of an inexplicable longing to stab him again more deeply before she lost him forever.

It was intolerable to her that he should leave her while she was still indignant, that he should evade her just resentment by the natural cowardice of flight.
"I can't forget it," she said; "how can you expect me to ?" For an instant he seemed on the point of smiling.

Then, turning, at the door, he walked back to where she was standing, and said gravely: "When I came in here it was to ask you to marry me, and, if it's the last word I ever speak, I thought you understood--that you knew how I felt.