She jumped up and clutched his arm
'Don't go, Harry--don't!
'Tell me, then,' said Knight sternly. 'And remember this, no more
fibs, or, upon my soul, I shall hate you. Heavens! that I should
come to this, to be made a fool of by a girl's untruths----'
'Don't, don't treat me so cruelly! O Harry, Harry, have pity, and
withdraw those dreadful words! I am truthful by nature--I am--and
I don't know how I came to make you misunderstand! But I was
frightened!' She quivered so in her perturbation that she shook
him with her {Note: sentence incomplete in text.}
'Did you say you were sitting on that tomb?' he asked moodily.
'Yes; and it was true.'
'Then how, in the name of Heaven, can a man sit upon his own
tomb?'
'That was another man. Forgive me, Harry, won't you?'
'What, a lover in the tomb and a lover on it?'
'Oh--Oh--yes!'
'Then there were two before me?
'I--suppose so.'
'Now, don't be a silly woman with your supposing--I hate all
that,' said Knight contemptuously almost. 'Well, we learn strange
things. I don't know what I might have done--no man can say into
what shape circumstances may warp him--but I hardly think I should
have had the conscience to accept the favours of a new lover
whilst sitting over the poor remains of the old one; upon my soul,
I don't.' Knight, in moody meditation, continued looking towards
the tomb, which stood staring them in the face like an avenging
ghost.
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