Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 2.djvu/106

96 He now turned round and stood facing me, with his back to the fire.

"Come then, Helen, are you going to be a good girl?" said he.

This sounded rather too arrogant, and the smile that accompanied it did not please me. I therefore hesitated to reply. Perhaps, my former answer had implied too much: he had heard my voice falter, and might have seen me brush away a tear.

"Are you going to forgive me, Helen?" he resumed, more humbly.

"Are you penitent!" I replied, stepping up to him and smiling in his face.

"Heart-broken!" he answered, with a rueful countenance—yet with a merry smile just lurking within his eyes and about the corners of his mouth; but this could not repulse me, and I flew into his arms. He fervently embraced me and though I shed a torrent of tears, I think I never was happier in my life than at that moment.