“I am very sorry, Georgie,” said Dick, humbly enough.
“It is possible to be sorry too late,” Georgia went on mercilessly; but he interrupted her with a burst of passion.
“Don’t I know that? Hasn’t it tormented me day and night since I knew that you cared for him? Don’t try me too far. I have done my best not to worry you since that day, and if I could do anything to make you happy with him, I would; but I can’t stand it if you begin to moralise on the subject. You expect too much of a man.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” said Georgia, turning round quickly. Her face had grown very pale. “Who is the person you are talking about?”
“Why, Stratford, of course,” said Dick, off his guard. Georgia’s eyes flamed.
“Stratford? You thought I was in love with Mr Stratford? After that, I don’t think there is anything more that need be said, Major North. Will you kindly let me pass?”
But he would not. Despair gave him courage, and he put his arm across the doorway. “Georgie, I’m an idiot and an ass and an utter fool, but give me another chance. I do love you, and if you will only let me try again, now that there’s no other fellow in the way, perhaps you might come to care for me a little in time.”
Georgia wavered, and was lost. She had caught sight of his face in the moonlight, and there was an expression in his eyes which completed what his eager, halting words had begun. “Oh, Dick, don’t look at me like that,” she entreated, laying her hands on his arm. “You may try again.”
“Try again? Georgie, may I really? How much does that mean?”
“Take the night to think over it,” said Georgia, trying to slip past him indoors; but he caught her hands and held her prisoner.
“You said just now ‘how could you learn to care for me?’ I thought you meant that it was impossible. Did you mean that there might be a chance? Just the one word, dear.”
“Yes,” said Georgia, in a voice which was somewhat muffled. “At least, I mean no. I have cared for you a long time.”
“What a beast I have been!” was the next coherent remark uttered by Dick.
“You were rather a trial,” was the murmured answer.
“But I am going to reform now, Georgie. You must pull me up if I let out at anything in which you have the smallest interest. But I could praise up the New Woman herself to-night.”