"You are not offended with me, then, Carr?"
"Nay," said Mr. Carr, "I have no reason to be offended. Your sin was not
against me."
"That's a strong word, 'sin.'"
"It is spoken," was the answer; "but I need not speak it again. I don't
intend to quarrel with you. I was not, I repeat, the injured party."
"Yet you took yourself off in dudgeon, as though you were, leaving me
without a groomsman."
"I would not remain to witness a marriage that--that you ought not to
have entered upon."
"Well, it's done and over, and need not be brought up again," returned
Hartledon, a shade of annoyance in his tones.
"Certainly not. I have no wish or right to bring it up. How is Lady
Hartledon?"
"She is very well. And now what has kept you away, Carr? We have been in
London nearly a fortnight, and you've never been near me. I thought you
_were_ going to quarrel."
"I did not know you had returned."
"Not know it! Why all the newspapers had it in amongst the 'fashionable
intelligence.'"
"I have more to do with my time than to look at the fashionable portion
of the papers. Not being fashionable myself, it doesn't interest me."
"Yes, it's about a fortnight since we came back to this hateful place,"
returned Hartledon, his light tone subsiding into seriousness. "I am out
of conceit with England just now; and would far rather have gone to the
Antipodes.
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