Then, breaking a short silence: "I hope you quite understand, dear, what I said about Leonard Boyce.

I shouldn't like to leave you with the smallest little bit of a wrong impression." "What wrong impression could I possibly have ?" I asked disingenuously.
"You might think that I was still in love with him." "That would be absurd," said I.
"Utterly absurd.

I should feel it to be almost an insult if you thought anything of the kind.

Long before my marriage things that had happened had killed all such feelings outright." She paused for a few seconds and her brow darkened, just as it had done when she had spoken of him in the days immediately preceding her marriage with Willie Connor.
Presently it cleared.

"The whole beginning and end of my present feelings," she continued, "is that I'm glad the man I once cared for has won such high distinction, and I'm sorry that such a brave soldier should be wounded." I could do nothing else than assure her of my perfect understanding.