"That those aspirations were not wholly unsuspected by you I had reason to believe.

I may, of course, have been mistaken; love, or vanity if you prefer it, may blind the wisest of us.
In any case, if I was vain, my pride came to the rescue, and sooner than incur the humiliation of a refusal--possibly a scornful refusal--I kept my secret locked in the inmost sanctuary of my heart, and went away." Mr Ogilvie illustrated his disappearance into vacancy by a slight but most expressive gesture of his arms.

"I simply went away.

And now I have come back.

I have unburdened myself before you.