"I am totally at a loss. I know nothing. I can
conjecture nothing. I have not seen her nor heard from her this past
year; and now she will say nothing. I pressed her as much, I think,
as a fellow decently could. If she had spoken clearly and definitely
it would have been different. Whatever statement a woman made to me
of any painful facts; or if she came to me with any confession of
folly, or change of feeling, or misfortune, or whatever it was, no
matter what, I should enter into it and understand her. But Lucia
to-night treated me like a stranger, fenced with me like an enemy. I
have no clue as to what to think and what to believe. Simply, I see
that she is no longer keen on the matter, and there is a large
possibility of my not having her at all. By God! if it is so"--
I broke off into silence. After all, there is no use in talk; and
the knives twisted backwards and forwards in my head helped to stop
speech.
We walked on in silence. The streets were very quiet here; we had
left the Grants' late, and now it was getting towards morning. We
verged directly towards Knightsbridge; for some time our steps were
the only sound. Then, after a pause, Dick said quietly--
"I think, Victor, you are going on a wrong tack altogether. You
don't make enough allowance for the fact that she is a girl, and has
not seen you for a year, remember.
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