"Don't let us speak of it: I was very sorry for you," she said, with a tinge of disdain which, as she instantly perceived, was not lost on him.
He flushed to his haggard eyes, flushed so cruelly that she repented the thrust.

"You might well be; you don't know--you must let me explain.

I was deceived: abominably deceived----" "I am still more sorry for you, then," she interposed, without irony; "but you must see that I am not exactly the person with whom the subject can be discussed." He met this with a look of genuine wonder.

"Why not?
Isn't it to you, of all people, that I owe an explanation----" "No explanation is necessary: the situation was perfectly clear to me." "Ah----" he murmured, his head drooping again, and his irresolute hand switching at the underbrush along the lane.

But as Lily made a movement to pass on, he broke out with fresh vehemence: "Miss Bart, for God's sake don't turn from me! We used to be good friends--you were always kind to me--and you don't know how I need a friend now." The lamentable weakness of the words roused a motion of pity in Lily's breast.