"You've heard it, and you see it says nothing very sweet."
"It gives me pleasure, all the same." And with this he got up.
She had felt pain and displeasure on receiving early that day the
news he was in Florence and by her leave would come within an hour
to see her. She had been vexed and distressed, though she had sent
back word by his messenger that he might come when he would. She had
not been better pleased when she saw him; his being there at all was
so full of heavy implications. It implied things she could never
assent to-rights, reproaches, remonstrance, rebuke, the expectation of
making her change her purpose. These things, however, if implied,
had not been expressed; and now our young lady, strangely enough,
began to resent her visitor's remarkable self-control. There was a
dumb misery about him that irritated her; there was a manly staying of
his hand that made her heart beat faster. She felt her agitation
rising, and she said to herself that she was angry in the way a
woman is angry when she has been in the wrong. She was not in the
wrong; she had fortunately not that bitterness to swallow; but, all
the same, she wished he would denounce her a little.
Pages:
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579