"He has got a wife of his
own."
"If Blanche does n't please him, he is certainly difficult;" and Angela
mused a little. "But you told me the other day that they were getting on
so well."
"Yes, I believe I told you," Bernard answered, musing a little too.
"You are not attending to what I say."
"No, I am thinking of something else--I am thinking of what it was that
made you refuse him that way, at the last, after you had let your mother
hope." And Bernard stood there, smiling at her.
"Don't think any more; you will not find out," the girl declared,
turning away.
"Ah, it was cruel of you to let me think I was wrong all these years,"
he went on; "and, at the time, since you meant to refuse him, you might
have been more frank with me."
"I thought my fault had been that I was too frank."
"I was densely stupid, and you might have made me understand better."
"Ah," said Angela, "you ask a great deal of a girl!"
"Why have you let me go on so long thinking that my deluded words had
had an effect upon Gordon--feeling that I had done you a brutal wrong?
It was real to me, the wrong--and I have told you of the pangs and the
shame which, for so many months, it has cost me! Why have you never
undeceived me until to-day, and then only by accident?"
At this question Angela blushed a little; then she answered, smiling--
"It was my vengeance.
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