Here were the guilty one's new excuses, expressed in his customary medley of frank confession and flowery language: "I am fearing, my angel, that I have offended you.

You have too surely said to yourself, This miserable Harry might have made me happy by writing two lines--and what does he do?
He sends a message in words which tell me nothing.
"My sweet girl, the reason why is that I was in two minds when your man stopped me on my way to the ship.
"Whether it was best for you--I was not thinking of myself--to confess the plain truth, or to take refuge in affectionate equivocation, was more than I could decide at the time.

When minutes are enough for your intelligence, my stupidity wants days.

Well! I saw it at last.

A man owes the truth to a true woman; and you are a true woman.