Bressant, feeling himself put rather on the defensive, answered hastily
and without premeditation:
"I like you more!"
"Oh! I'm so glad to hear you say so!" exclaimed she warmly, and as she
spoke he felt her hand a little more perceptibly on his arm. "It takes
such a load off my heart! seeing you and Sophie love one another so
much, I couldn't help loving you, too, in my way; and it made me so
unhappy to think I was disagreeable to you."
Bressant was quite unprepared for all this. Whatever had been his
speculations as to the future footing upon which he and Cornelia should
stand, it had been nothing like that she was now furnishing. It did not
seem at all in the vein which she had opened on the day of her return.
He was puzzled: had he been more used to ladies' society, he would have
mistrusted her sincerity.
"You could never be disagreeable to me!" was his answer: and he looked
down at her oval cheek, with his first attempt at fraternal admiration.
It turned out badly. She looked unexpectedly up: his glance fell through
her tawny eyes, and sank down, burning deliciously, into her heart. She
turned pale with the pain and the pleasure: but it was such pain and
pleasure that she sought, and wanted more of.
"Well, then! it's all clear between us again--is it?" resumed she,
drawing a long breath, which sounded more like the irrepressible
out-come of a tumultuous heart, than a sigh of relieved suspense upon
the point in question.
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