HE: "No, I never supposed such a thing. I'm incapable of it. I
beseech you to believe that no one could have more respect--
reverence"--He twirls his hat between his hands, and casts an
imploring glance at her.

SHE: "Oh, respect--reverence! I know what they mean in the mouths
of men. If you respected, if you reverenced me, could you dare to
tell me, after my unguarded trust of you during the past months, that
you had been all the time secretly in love with me?"

HE, plucking up a little courage: "I don't see that the three things
are incompatible."

SHE: "Oh, then you acknowledge that you did presume upon something
you thought you saw in me to tell me that you loved me, and that you
were in love with me all the time?"

HE, contritely: "I have no right to suppose that you encouraged me;
and yet--I can't deny it now--I was in love with you all the time."

SHE: "And you never said a word to let me believe that you had any
such feeling toward me!"

HE: "I--I" -

SHE: "You would have parted from me without a syllable to suggest
it--perhaps parted from me forever?" After a pause of silent
humiliation for him: "Do you call that brave or generous? Do you
call it manly--supposing, as you hoped, that _I_ had any such
feeling?"