'I could not help his
loving me, Mrs. Jethway!'
'That's just what you could have helped. You know how it began,
Miss Elfride. Yes: you said you liked the name of Felix better
than any other name in the parish, and you knew it was his name,
and that those you said it to would report it to him.'
'I knew it was his name--of course I did; but I am sure, Mrs.
Jethway, I did not intend anybody to tell him.'
'But you knew they would.'
'No, I didn't.'
'And then, after that, when you were riding on Revels-day by our
house, and the lads were gathered there, and you wanted to
dismount, when Jim Drake and George Upway and three or four more
ran forward to hold your pony, and Felix stood back timid, why did
you beckon to him, and say you would rather he held it? '
'O Mrs. Jethway, you do think so mistakenly! I liked him best--
that's why I wanted him to do it. He was gentle and nice--I
always thought him so--and I liked him.'
'Then why did you let him kiss you?'
'It is a falsehood; oh, it is, it is!' said Elfride, weeping with
desperation. 'He came behind me, and attempted to kiss me; and
that was why I told him never to let me see him again.'
'But you did not tell your father or anybody, as you would have if
you had looked upon it then as the insult you now pretend it was.'
'He begged me not to tell, and foolishly enough I did not. And I
wish I had now. I little expected to be scourged with my own
kindness.
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