I have promised my uncle also. But, George, you will say that you
forgive me?'

'Yes;--I will forgive you.' But still there was the same black
cloud upon his face,--the same look of pain,--the same glance of
anger in his eye.

'O George, I am so unhappy! There can be no comfort for me now,
unless you will say that you will be contented.'

'I cannot say that, Marie.'

'You will have your house, and your business, and so many things to
interest you. And in time,--after a little time--'

'No, Marie, after no time at all. You told me at supper to-night
that I had better get a wife for myself. But I will get no wife. I
could not bring myself to marry another girl, I could not take a
woman home as my wife if I did not love her. If she were not the
person of all persons most dear to me, I should loathe her.'

He was speaking daggers to her, and he must have known how sharp
were his words. He was speaking daggers to her, and she must have
felt that he knew how he was wounding her. But yet she did not
resent his usage, even by a motion of her lip. Could she have
brought herself to do so, her agony would have been less sharp. 'I
suppose,' she said at last, 'that a woman is weaker than a man. But
you say that you will forgive me?'

'I have forgiven you.'