Her
hallucination was so monstrous, and gave me such a shock of
desperate alarm, that I spoke, on the impulse of the moment, with
great energy, without regarding how her feelings might be wounded.
"`You mistake!' I exclaimed. `I didn't mean that,--I didn't
understand you. Don't talk to me that way,--don't look at me in
that way, Miss Ringtop! We were never meant for each other--I
wasn't----You're so much older--I mean different. It can't be--no,
it can never be! Let us go back to the house: the night is cold.'
"I rose hastily to my feet. She murmured something,--what, I did
not stay to hear,--but, plunging through the cedars, was hurrying
with all speed to the house, when, half-way up the lawn, beside one
of the rocky knobs, I met Eunice, who was apparently on her way to
join us.
In my excited mood, after the ordeal through which I had
passed, everything seemed easy. My usual timidity was blown
to the four winds. I went directly to her, took her hand, and
said--
"`Eunice, the others are driving me mad with their candor; will you
let me be candid, too?'
"`I think you are always candid, Enos,' she answered.
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