He had refused the offer,--and they had parted
without a word. Now they had come together again, and she was
certainly among the dearest of his friends. Had she not taken that
wondrous journey to Prague in his behalf, and been the first among
those who had striven,--and had striven at last successfully,--to
save his neck from the halter? Dear to her! He knew well as he sat
with his eyes closed in the railway carriage that he must be dear to
her! But might it not well be that she had resolved that friendship
should take the place of love? And was it not compatible with her
nature,--with all human nature,--that in spite of her regard for him
she should choose to be revenged for the evil which had befallen her,
when she offered her hand in vain? She must know by this time that he
intended to throw himself at her feet; and would hardly have advised
him as she had done as to the necessity of following up that success
which had hitherto been so essential to him, had she intended to
give him all that she had once offered him before.
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