When our engagement began that affection was
mine to give, if I could, and yours to win, if you could. Will
you pardon me, and spare me, Sir Percival, if I acknowledge that
it is not so any longer?"
A few tears gathered in her eyes, and dropped over her cheeks
slowly as she paused and waited for his answer. He did not utter
a word. At the beginning of her reply he had moved the hand on
which his head rested, so that it hid his face. I saw nothing but
the upper part of his figure at the table. Not a muscle of him
moved. The fingers of the hand which supported his head were
dented deep in his hair. They might have expressed hidden anger
or hidden grief--it was hard to say which--there was no
significant trembling in them. There was nothing, absolutely
nothing, to tell the secret of his thoughts at that moment--the
moment which was the crisis of his life and the crisis of hers.
I was determined to make him declare himself, for Laura's sake.
"Sir Percival!" I interposed sharply, "have you nothing to say
when my sister has said so much? More, in my opinion," I added, my
unlucky temper getting the better of me, "than any man alive, in
your position, has a right to hear from her.
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