It conveyed
little re-assurance to his irritated conscience--it had become
imponderable and impertinent. At the moment of which I speak it entirely
failed to present itself, even for form's sake; and as he sat looking
at this superior creature who came back to him out of an episode of his
past, he thought of her simply as an unprotected woman toward whom he
had been indelicate. It is not an agreeable thing for a delicate man
like Bernard Longueville to have to accommodate himself to such an
accident, but this is nevertheless what it seemed needful that he should
do. If she bore him a grudge he must think it natural; if she had vowed
him a hatred he must allow her the comfort of it. He had done the only
thing possible, but that made it no better for her. He had wronged her.
The circumstances mattered nothing, and as he could not make it up
to her, the only reasonable thing was to keep out of her way. He had
stepped into her path now, and the proper thing was to step out of it.
If it could give her no pleasure to see him again, it could certainly do
him no good to see her. He had seen her by this time pretty well--as far
as mere seeing went, and as yet, apparently, he was none the worse for
that; but his hope that he should himself escape unperceived had now
become acute.
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