CONFIDENCE
resisted him that I went to you again, that last time. But I was still afraid of you, and in my heart I believed him. As I say, I always believed him; it was his great influence upon me. He is the cleverest, the most intelligent, the most brilliant of men. I don't think that a grain less than I ever thought it," he continued, turning again to Bernard. "I think it only the more, and I don't wonder that you find a woman to believe it. But what have you done but deceive me? It was just my belief in your intelligence that reassured me. When Miss Vivian refused me a second time, and I left Baden, it was at first with a sort of relief. But there came back a better feeling—a feeling faint compared to this feeling of to-day, but strong enough to make me uneasy and to fill me with regret. To quench my regret, I kept thinking of what you had said, and it kept me quiet. Your word had such weight with me."
"How many times more would you have wished to be refused, and how many refusals would have been required to give me my liberty?" asked Bernard.
"That question means nothing, because you never knew that I had again offered myself to Miss Vivian."
"No; you told me very little, considering all that you made me tell you!"
"I told you beforehand that I should do exactly as I chose."
"You should have allowed me the same liberty."
"Liberty!" cried Gordon. "Hadn't you liberty to range the whole world over? Couldn't he have found a thousand other women?"
"It is not for me to think so," said Angela, smiling a little.
Gordon looked at her a moment.
"Ah, you cared for him from the first!" he cried.
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