A girl
would wish to look well before her lover, even when she means to
refuse him. But her pause was but for an instant, and then she went
on, having touched nothing. She shook her head and pressed her hands
together, and went on quick and opened the door,--almost with a
little start. "Violet, this is very good of you," said Lord Chiltern,
standing with his back to the fire, and not moving from the spot.
"Laura has told me that you thought I would do as much as this for
you, and therefore I have done it."
"Thanks, dearest. It is the old story, Violet, and I am so bad at
words!"
"I must have been bad at words too, as I have not been able to make
you understand."
"I think I have understood. You are always clear-spoken, and I,
though I cannot talk, am not muddle-pated. I have understood. But
while you are single there must be yet hope;--unless, indeed, you
will tell me that you have already given yourself to another man."
"I have not done that."
"Then how can I not hope? Violet, I would if I could tell you all my
feelings plainly. Once, twice, thrice, I have said to myself that I
would think of you no more. I have tried to persuade myself that I am
better single than married."
"But I am not the only woman."
"To me you are,--absolutely, as though there were none other on the
face of God's earth.
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