Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/205

Rh least, I did not know I put my feeling into any expression."

"Your feeling—what feeling?"

A young man at the other end of the room leaned forward. He spoke as though to put an end to the suspense.

"If I have shown you any coldness, I apologize," he said slowly. "If I have avoided you, it has been because of a feeling that I cannot explain—ever since you returned from that terrible day on the ice."

"Yes"—Edward turned to him—"it is since that day. What have I done since that day?"

The young man flushed. "It wasn't since that day," he said; "it was on that day."

He moved uneasily; some one else muttered, "Yes! on that day"; and he resumed,—

"I don't know if it's the same thing that we all feel since we heard—since we heard——"

"Go on!" Edward cried hoarsely, his face losing its red flush of anger and growing pale.

"But I know that with me it's only a certain feeling I have. I dare say that I am all wrong—I dare say that we should all have done what you did."