The action was natural enough, strong
enough. But he completely spoiled the effect by the words he spoke in his
thin tenor voice.
"No, Arthur," she said. "No, Arthur; since you mention the future, I may
as well tell you _now_ that my answer will never be anything but No. At
one time I thought that it might be different. I told my mother that
possibly, after a great many years, I might think otherwise; but I
retract that. I shall never think otherwise. And if you imagine that you
can force me to do so, please lay aside that hope at once."
"Then there is some one else!" cried Arthur, with an apparent
irrelevance. "I know there is some one else."
Dora seemed to be reflecting. She looked over his head, out of the
window, where the fleecy summer clouds floated idly over the sky.
She turned and looked deliberately at the door by which Mrs. Agar had
disappeared. It was standing ajar. Then again she reflected, weighing
something in her mind.
"Yes," she replied half-dreamily at length.
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