His words had flowed like a
torrent from his lips, and she took a step back from him, as she replied,
"Mr. McNeil, I will _never_ regard you in the light you are thinking of, so
all this talk is worse than folly."
"Have I spoken too late?" he almost hissed.
His eyes seemed to burn as he looked into her face.
"Have you already promised yourself to Lancy? Tell me!"
"I will not!" came the defiant answer. "You have no right to ask such a
question, and I will not answer it!"
Her defiant air and scornful words angered him. He had buoyed himself up
with the hope that if he once declared his love she would be touched with
the declaration, and, if she did refuse him, would do it in a kindly way
that would bid him hope for better luck by and by; but to have his love
flung back in his teeth, as it were, was more than his passionate nature
could bear.
"Oh! so you love him, do you, and spurn me. Tell me, is it so?"
Again she stepped back from him as he was speaking, and was unaware how
very near she was to the edge of the roof; but Hugh observed it, and
thinking he could force a confession from her lips through fear, if by no
other means, he quickly grasped her arm, saying in a voice trembling with
passion:
"Do you love him? Tell me, or I'll throw you over!"
Dexie turned her head, and for one awful moment, as she realized her peril,
her face blanched to her very lips; but instead of the answer Hugh
expected, she raised her eyes to his, and he quailed beneath their terrible
glance, as she cried:
"Throw me over then, you coward, for I'll never tell you!"
An instant they stood thus face to face, on the very edge of the roof, when
Hugh's better nature asserted itself, and he quickly drew her back to
safety, exclaiming hoarsely:
"Forgive me, Dexie, I never meant to do it, indeed I did not; I would not
harm a hair of your dear head for a thousand worlds!"
He felt weak and small before the girl whom he had thought to bend to his
will, and made no effort now to keep her from entering the house, but
stepped to the window beside her and raised it, endeavoring all the while
to get a word of forgiveness from her close-shut lips.
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