You are wildly
fascinating, but you are not for me. If I led you to believe that
I wished to marry you, pray forget it. We should make each other
unhappy and, worse still, uncomfortable.
"Do I make myself clear? We are not engaged. I hope you will marry
Arkwright; a fine fellow, in every way suited to you, and, I
happen to know, madly in love with you. Please try to forgive me.
If you have any feeling for me stronger than friendship you will
surely get over it.
"Anyhow, we couldn't marry. That is settled.
"Let me have an answer to this. I shall be upset until I hear." No
beginning. No end. Just a bald, brutal casting-off. A hint--more
than a hint--of a fear that she would try to hold him in spite of
himself. She smiled--small, even teeth clenched and eyelids
contracted cruelly--as she read a second time, with this
unflattering suggestion obtruding. The humiliation of being
jilted! And by such a man!--the private shame--the public
disgrace--She sprang up, crunching her foot hard down upon one of
Selina's hands. "What is it?" said she angrily, at her maid's cry
of pain.
"Nothing, Miss," replied Selina, quickly hiding the wounded hand.
"You moved so quick I hadn't time to draw away.
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