But they were not, and the long reverberating crash of thunder which followed prevented any audible reply from Courtland, and covered his agitation.
For without fully accepting Champney's conclusions he was cruelly shocked at the young man's utterance of them.

He had scrupulously respected the wishes of Miss Sally and had faithfully--although never hopelessly--held back any expression of his own love since their conversation in the cemetery.

But while his native truthfulness and sense of honor had overlooked the seeming insincerity of her attitude towards Champney, he had never justified his own tacit participation in it, and the concealment of his own pretensions before his possible rival.

It was true that she had forbidden him to openly enter the lists with her admirers, but Champney's innocent assumption of his indifference to her and his consequent half confidences added poignancy to his story.

There seemed to be only one way to extricate himself, and that was by a quarrel.