e--and every word of hers now was pain to
me--"because there is but one answer that I can give, which is No."

"Why--" cried I.

"You have spoken very kindly and generously. But--" and at this her
voice began to ring a little--"but I am not what you think me--a maid to
be flung at the head of any man who will choose to take her."

"Cousin!" cried I; and then she was on her feet too, her face all
ablaze.

"Yes, Cousin!" cried she; "and never any more than that. You have acted
very well, Cousin Roger; and I thank you for that compliment--that you
thought it worth while to play the part--and for your great kindness to
a poor country maid. I had thought it to be all over long ago--before
you went away; or I would not have behaved as I have. But since you have
considered it again carefully, and chosen to--to insult me after all; I
have no answer at all to give, except No, a thousand times over."

"Why, Cousin--" I began again.

She stamped her foot. I could not have imagined she could be so angry.

"Wait till I have done," she said--"I do not know what my father thinks
of me; but I suppose that you and he have designed all this; and led me
on to make a fool of myself--Oh! Let me go! let me go!"

Oh! the triple fool that I was! Yet who had ever taught me the ways of
love, or what women mean, or what their hearts are like? If I had been
one half the man that I thought myself, I would have seized her there,
and forced back her foolishness with kisses, and vowed that, conspirator
or not, she must have me; that we knew one another too well to play
false coin like this. Or I should have blazed at her in return; and told
her that she lied in thinking I was as base as that. Why, I should have
just borne myself like a lover to whom love is all, and dignity and
wounded pride nothing; for what else is there but love, sacred or
profane, in the whole world that God has made? If I had done that! If
only I had done that then! But I suppose that I was no lover then.

So I drew back, smarting and wounded; and let her go by; and a minute
later I heard the door of her chamber slam behind her, and the key turn.

* * * * *

For myself I went out very slowly, five minutes after, and upstairs to
my own chamber, and began to consider what things I must take with me on
the morrow; for I would not stay another day in the house where I had
been so insulted and denied.

CHAPTER VIII

Pride is a very