It is something that one cannot always give at will, or
wisely; but if I had the power to give it at all, it should be to a
man who had earned the right to ask it, and not to one who, within a
few short days, had formed new impressions about me. Love is not the
affection of a friend, or even of a sister. There is no necessity for
me to marry."
"Then you refuse me?" he said, a little stiffly.
"Certainly I refuse you, Graydon. Has my manner led you to think that
I was eager for a chance to accept you?"
"Oh, no, indeed! You have checked my slightest tendencies toward
sentiment."
"Thank you for the assurance. I do not care in the least for
sentiment."
His airy fabric of hope, of almost certainty, had been shattered so
suddenly that he was overwhelmed. There seemed but one conclusion.
"Madge," he said, in a low, hoarse voice, "answer me, yes or no. You
loved some one at Santa Barbara who did not return your love? That is
your trouble of which Mrs. Wendall spoke--I could not help hearing her
words--that is the mystery about you which has been haunting me with
increasing perplexity; that was the sorrow I heard in your voice the
evening you sang in the chapel, and which has vaguely, yet strongly,
moved me since? Tell me, is it not so? Tell me, as a friend, that I
may be a truer friend.
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