It was preposterous, out of
all proportion, that he should have had to ask such a question, in such a
tone, of little Deleah Day.
"I am so very sorry, Mr. Gibbon," she said again, and he heard in a
silence that made her heart ache.
"Shall you go away?" she asked him presently. In books the lover being
rejected removed himself for a time in order to recover from the blow. She
was relieved to find in the boarder's case this was not considered
necessary.
"Why should I go away?" he asked.
"It will be better to go on just the same," she advised eagerly. "Bessie
need never know."
"Bessie!" he said again contemptuously; he loosed his grip of the dresser,
and swung round, standing with his back to her, that she might not see his
face. "You've crushed every hope I had; you've--broken me; and you talk to
me of Bessie. What, in the name of heaven or hell, do you suppose I care
for _Bessie_; or whether she knows or not?"
Deleah, keeping her place on the table, listened to the altered, choked
voice of him with astonishment. Their unfailingly polite--too polite! and
retiring boarder! Was it really he, standing with his back to her,
speaking of Bessie--Bessie!--in such a tone!
"You see, I never knew! I never guessed," she excused herself helplessly.
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