' As if
you didn't know I think of you from morning till night. But you
want to be told it again and again, do you?"
"No, indeed, sir, I don't. I would far liefer* that you should say
you would never think of me again, than that you should speak of me
in this way. For, indeed, sir, I never was more in earnest than I
am, when I say to-night is the last night I will ever speak to you."
*Liefer; rather.
"Yet had I LEVRE unwist for sorrow die."
--CHAUCER, Troilus and Creseide.
"Last night, you sweet little equivocator, but not last day. Ha,
Mary, I've caught you, have I?" as she, puzzled by his perseverance
in thinking her joking, hesitated in what form she could now put her
meaning.
"I mean, sir," she said sharply, "that I will never speak to you
again, at any time, after to-night."
"And what's made this change, Mary?" said he, seriously enough now.
"Have I done anything to offend you?" added he earnestly.
"No, sir," she answered gently, but yet firmly. "I cannot tell you
exactly why I've changed my mind; but I shall not alter it again;
and, as I said before, I beg your pardon if I've done wrong by you.
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