We would have been supremely happy.

But I was so frightfully arrogant in those days, and when I spoke I was deadly ashamed of myself, and then furious with you for daring to defy me and going after all.

No one had ever disobeyed me.

But it was shame really which made me agree to join Latimer Berkeley's expedition at once--the letter came by the early post.

I wanted to get right away and try to forget what I had done--and since you had expressed your will, I just left you to stand by it." He leaned upon the mantelpiece now and buried his face in his hands.
"Oh, how wrong I was! Because you were so young I should have known that you could not judge--and perhaps acted hastily in that sort of reaction which always comes to one after passion--and I should have followed you and brought you back." His tones shook with anguish now.