o away, if you would rather
have it so. But you used to be so good-natured to me."

"So I am still. Or at least I mean that people should now be
good-natured to me. Oh, Captain Scudamore, how foolish I have been!"

"Don't say so, don't think it, don't believe it for a moment," said
Scudamore, scarcely knowing what he said, as she burst into a storm of
sobbing. "Oh, Dolly, Dolly, you know you meant no harm. You are breaking
your darling heart, when you don't deserve it. I could not bear to look
at you, and think of it, this morning. Everybody loves you still, as
much and more than ever. Oh, Dolly, I would rather die than see you cry
so terribly."

"Nobody loves me, and I hate myself. I could never have believed I
should ever hate myself. Go away, you are too good to be near me. Go
away, or I shall think you want to kill me. And I wish you would do it,
Captain Scudamore."

"Then let me stop," said the Captain, very softly. She smiled at the
turn of his logic, through her tears. Then she wept with new anguish,
that she had no right to smile.

"Only tell me one thing--may I hold you? Not of course from any right to
do it, but because you are so overcome, my own, own Dolly." The Captain
very cleverly put one arm round her, at first with a very light touch,
and then with a firmer clasp, as she did not draw away. Her cloak was
not very cumbrous, and her tumultuous heart was but a little way from
his.

"You know that I never could help loving you," he whispered, as she
seemed to wonder what the meaning was. "May I ever hope that you will
like me?"

"Me! How can it matter now to anybody? I used to think it did; but I
was very foolish then. I know my own value. It is less than this. This
little flower has been a good creature. It has been true to its place,
and hurt nobody."

Instead of seeking for any more flowers, she was taking from her breast
the one she had--the snow-drop, and threatening to tear it in pieces.

"If you give it to me, I shall have some hope." As he spoke, he looked
at her steadfastly, without any shyness or fear in his eyes, but as one
who knows his own good heart, and has a right to be answered clearly.
The maiden in one glance understood all the tales of his wonderful
daring, which she never used to believe, because he seemed afraid to
look at her.

"You may have it, if you like," she said; "but, Blyth, I shall never
deserve you. I have behaved to you shamefully. And I feel as if I could
never