She had behaved very well, but still he would not be weak
enough to yield to her in everything at once. As to opening her desk,
or going up-stairs into her room, that he felt to be quite impossible.
Even his nature did not admit of that. But neither did his nature allow
him to ask her pardon and to own that he had been wrong. She had said
that he must implore her forgiveness at her feet. One word, however,
one look, would have sufficed. But that word and that look were, at the
present moment, out of his power. "Good-bye, Nina," he said. "It is
best that I should leave you now."
"By far the best; and you will take the necklace with you, if you
please."
"No; I will leave that. I cannot keep a trinket that was your
mother's."
"Take it, then, to the jeweller's, and get back your money. It shall
not be left here. I will have nothing from your hands." He was so far
cowed by her manner that he took up the necklace and left the house,
and Nina was once more alone.
What they had told her of her lover was after all true.
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