now and for ever. He walked away from her, perhaps a distance of two
hundred yards, as though the interview was over, and he were leaving
her. She, as she saw him go, wished that he would return that she might
say some word of comfort to him. Not that she could have said the only
word that would have comforted him. At the first blush of the thing, at
the first sound of the address which he had made to her, she had been
angry with him. He had disappointed her, and she was indignant. But her
anger had already melted and turned itself to ruth. She could not but
love him better, in that he had loved her so well; but yet she could
not love him with the love which he desired.

But he did not leave her. When he had gone from her down the hill the
distance that has been named, he turned back and came up to her slowly.
He had a trick of standing and walking with his thumbs fixed into the
armholes of his waistcoat, while his large hands rested on his breast.
He would always assume this attitude when he was assured that he was
right in his views, and was eager to carry some point at issue. Clara
already understood that this attitude signified his intention to be
autocratic. He now came close up to her and again stood over her,
before he spoke. 'My dear,' he said, 'I have been rough and hasty in
what I have said to you, and I have to ask you to pardon my want of
manners.'

'No, no, no,' she exclaimed.

'But in a matter of so much interest to us both you will not let an
awkward manner prejudice me.'

'It is not that; indeed, it is not.'