Her brave, honest
nature could understand a brute or a despot, but not a traitor.
"Then, like frank enemies who have fought their fight out, yet bear
no malice toward each other, we may shake hands and be friends, I
hope," said Craven, replying in the same spirit in which she had
spoken.
"Well, I don't know about that, Mr. Le Noir. Friendship is a very
sacred thing, and its name should not be lightly taken on our
tongues. I hope you will excuse me if I decline your proffer," said
Cap, who had a well of deep, true, earnest feeling beneath her
effervescent surface.
"What! you will not even grant a repentant man your friendship, Miss
Black?" asked Craven, with a sorrowful smile.
"I wish you well, Mr. Le Noir. I wish you a good and, therefore, a
happy life; but I cannot give you friendship, for that means a great
deal."
"Oh, I see how it is! You cannot give your friendship where you
cannot give your esteem. Is it not so?"
"Yes," said Capitola; "that is it; yet I wish you so well that I
wish you might grow worthy of higher esteem than mine."
"You are thinking of my--yes, I will not shrink from characterizing
that conduct as it deserves--my unpardonable violence toward Clara.
Miss Black, I have mourned that sin from the day that I was hurried
into it until this. I have bewailed it from the very bottom of my
heart," said Craven, earnestly, fixing his eyes with an expression
of perfect truthfulness upon those of Capitola.
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