He knew that she would never love him, and, to do her justice, she never had given him reason to suppose that it was in her power to love him, r any man.

And here he stood, obliged to appear ungrateful and prejudiced, mean and vindictive, in her eyes.

He took his seat again, looking so unutterably dejected, his patient face so tragically mournful, that Madeleine, after a while, began to see the absurd side of the matter, and presently burst into a laugh "Please do not look so frightfully miserable!" said she; "I did not mean to make you unhappy.

After all, what does it matter?
You have a perfect right to refuse, and, for my part, I have not the least wish to see you accept." On this, Carrington brightened, and declared that if she thought him right in declining, he cared for nothing else.

It was only the idea of hurting her feelings that weighed on his mind.