"Well, I must tell you everything," she began again, "but I wish I hadn't got it to tell. It spoils everything. When he told me that he loved me, and asked me to marry him, I pretended to be very surprised, and said that I'd no idea of marrying him. He was very quiet, and let me go on. I said I didn't love him; I had had enough of that sort of love, and only loved you, and Dad, and the others. I can't think what made me go on like that. I was a _fool_. But he stopped me suddenly. He was very angry. He said I had known quite well that he would say what he had, and that I had meant him to, and that I wasn't what he had thought I was. Then he went away, without saying good-bye or anything. "I was frightened then, and--and ashamed of myself, because what he had said was true. And I didn't want him to go away altogether. I thought perhaps after all I did love him a little. Oh, I don't know what I thought. But I went upstairs to the window to look at him coming from the stables--he had ridden over--and to see what he looked like. And Bunting came down from the attic and caught me there, but of course he didn't know what I was doing, and he startled me so much that I flew out at him." She laughed a little. "Poor darling Bunting!" she said. "I startled _him_. I don't think he has ever seen me like that before. But I told him I was sorry afterwards, and he was awfully sweet about it and said it didn't matter a damn. I think he'd have been still more surprised if he'd known what I was there for. Fortunately he wasn't near enough to the window to see Dick. "Well, then, I was rather miserable, but I was angry too at the way he had spoken to me. Sometimes I was one and sometimes I was the other, and I didn't know whether I cared for him or not. The next morning it had all calmed down rather, and I made up my mind I wouldn't care whether he came back or not, and that if he did I would behave just as I had before, and pretend that nothing had happened. I don't know whether I should have been able to keep that up if he hadn't come to lunch next day. When Jarvis brought up his name I was glad, though I don't think I showed it, did I?" Caroline reminded her of what she had said, and she smiled and said she thought she had hidden it very well, and by the way he behaved she thought he intended to ignore what had happened too. "I was a little frightened when you went indoors and left me alone with him," she said. "But for some time he went on talking as if he had forgotten everything, and I was rather grateful to him, and felt that I did like him very much. He's so strong and--and self-controlled; and I admire strong men, who won't let you play with them. I had had enough of that. I didn't want to play with him any more, and I wanted him to see that I was sorry, without having to say so. So I suppose I was extra nice to him. And I did want him at least as a friend.