"
"Not if we forget the past. We have still a future, thank God!"
"I can't forget--I don't forget," said Catherine. "You treated me
too badly. I felt it very much; I felt it for years." And then she
went on, with her wish to show him that he must not come to her this
way, "I can't begin again--I can't take it up. Everything is dead
and buried. It was too serious; it made a great change in my life.
I never expected to see you here."
"Ah, you are angry!" cried Morris, who wished immensely that he could
extort some flash of passion from her mildness. In that case he
might hope.
"No, I am not angry. Anger does not last, that way, for years. But
there are other things. Impressions last, when they have been
strong. But I can't talk."
Morris stood stroking his beard, with a clouded eye. "Why have you
never married?" he asked abruptly. "You have had opportunities."
"I didn't wish to marry."
"Yes, you are rich, you are free; you had nothing to gain."
"I had nothing to gain," said Catherine.
Morris looked vaguely round him, and gave a deep sigh. "Well, I was
in hopes that we might still have been friends."
"I meant to tell you, by my aunt, in answer to your message--if you
had waited for an answer--that it was unnecessary for you to come in
that hope."
"Good-bye, then," said Morris. "Excuse my indiscretion."
He bowed, and she turned away--standing there, averted, with her eyes
on the ground, for some moments after she had heard him close the
door of the room.
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