She placed her
parasol and a few things she had been carrying on the table, arranging
them with some care; then, having given him time to recover from his
surprise, she flashed a look at him that sent a thrill to the finger-tips
of the young man. Yet a danger understood is a danger half overcome; and
Wentworth, unconsciously drawing a deep breath, nerved himself against
any recurrence of a feeling he had been trying with but indifferent
success to forget, saying grimly, but only half convincingly, to himself:
'You are not going to fool me a second time, my girl, lovely as you are.'
A glimmer of a smile hovered about the red lips of the girl, a smile
hardly perceptible, but giving an effect to her clear complexion as if a
sunbeam had crept into the room, and its reflection had lit up her face.
'I have come to apologize, Mr. Wentworth,' she said at last. 'I find it a
very difficult thing to do, and, as I don't quite know how to begin, I
plunge right into it.'
'You don't need to apologize to me for anything, Miss Brewster,' replied
Wentworth, rather stiffly.
'Oh yes, I do. Don't make it harder than it is by being too frigidly
polite about it, but say you accept the apology, and that you're
sorry--no, I don't mean that--I should say that you're sure I'm sorry,
and that you know I won't do it again.'
Wentworth laughed, and Miss Brewster joined him.
'There,' she said, 'that's ever so much better. I suppose you've been
thinking hard things of me ever since we last met.
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