She had wished
his visit would be short; it had no purpose, no propriety; yet now
that he seemed to be turning away she felt a sudden horror of his
leaving her without uttering a word that would give her an opportunity
to defend herself more than she had done in writing to him a month
before, in a few carefully chosen words, to announce her engagement.
If she were not in the wrong, however, why should she desire to defend
herself? It was an excess of generosity on Isabel's part to desire
that Mr. Goodwood should be angry. And if he had not meanwhile held
himself hard it might have made him so to hear the tone in which she
suddenly exclaimed, as if she were accusing him of having accused her:
"I've not deceived you! I was perfectly free!"
"Yes, I know that," said Caspar.
"I gave you full warning that I'd do as I chose."
"You said you'd probably never marry, and you said it with such a
manner that I pretty well believed it."
She considered this an instant. "No one can be more surprised than
myself at my present intention."
"You told me that if I heard you were engaged I was not to believe
it," Caspar went on. "I heard it twenty days ago from yourself, but
I remembered what you had said.
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