'Yes, sir, yes.' And the Admiral was hastily left, the door was closed,
and the moment arrived in which Anne was alone with Captain Wentworth.
She could not attempt to see how he looked, but he walked immediately to
a window as if irresolute and embarrassed, and for about the space of
five seconds she repented what she had done--censured it as unwise,
blushed over it as indelicate. She longed to be able to speak of the
weather or the concert, but could only compass the relief of taking a
newspaper in her hand. The distressing pause was over, however; he
turned round in half a minute, and coming towards the table where she
sat, said in a voice of effort and constraint--
'You must have heard too much already, Madam, to be in any doubt of my
having promised Admiral Croft to speak to you on a particular subject,
and this conviction determines me to do so, however repugnant to my--to
all my sense of propriety to be taking so great a liberty! You will
acquit me of impertinence I trust, by considering me as speaking only for
another, and speaking by necessity; and the Admiral is a man who can
never be thought impertinent by one who knows him as you do.
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