Page:Joan, the curate.djvu/299

Rh cold and haughty demeanor, it was plain both that she was longing to find some way of getting out of the position she had taken up, and that she was rejoiced at seeing her lover again. Tregenna, on his side, was just as feverishly happy in this meeting as she, and just as eager to go on with the quarrel, if that were the only way of holding converse with her.

She uttered another sob.

"I thought you cared for me!" sighed she.

"Madam, I thought I did also."

"But I see plainly you do not!"

"Nay, madam, then your eyes are keen to see the thing which is not!"

"If—if you cared for me, you would have been to visit me—while I was at my aunt's!"

"If you had cared for me, you would not have gone away!"

"Then this is to be farewell indeed, sir?"

"If such is your pleasure, madam!"

"Oh, Harry, you are too, too cruel!"

"And you," whispered Tregenna, his tone suddenly melting to tenderness, as he seized her in his arms, "are too foolish, my dear! Come, dry your eyes and confess that never had a maiden so little cause to doubt her lover