Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/35

 "Don't!" exclaimed the woman. "It's all so far in the past, when I was a child, almost; and if I ever thought there was anything to forgive, I forgave it long ago."

"If I could only tell you!" he groaned. "But I can't, I'm bound

"Hush, don't try to tell me anything," she said hurriedly. "I wouldn't have come if I hadn't forgotten everything but our friendship, and my friendship with Milly, who used to be so good—so very good to me when I was a child—and she no more than a girl. I don't want to be reminded of anything except happy memories, and though you have made me rather foolish and tearful—oh, without meaning to, I know!—I do think it would be better if I stayed now, and waited for your wife to come home. I—I made up my mind to pay this visit, you know, though—it wasn't quite easy; and Maud never heard—anything disagreeable, I hope, so you seeYes, I am almost sure I had better stay, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am sure. Stay!" answered Sir Ian. "Shall we go into the house?"

There was agony in his eyes and voice, but Teresina Ricardo would not seem to hear. She had known that the first meeting would be difficult, though she had not expected him to show such remorse as this. She had thought often that perhaps he felt none. With her heart beating so hard that she was half afraid he