I mean a great deal more than I really do. To be
honest, I think you have thoughtlessly given a good deal of pain. I dare
say you did it unconsciously."

"Thank you. You are very charitable, but I cannot shield myself under
the supposition that at eight-and-thirty I am a creature of impulse,
unconscious of the meaning of my own actions."

"If that is the case," thought Ruth, "your behavior to me has been
inexcusable, especially the last few days; though, fortunately for
myself, I was not deceived by it."

"If you persist in keeping silence," said Charles, after waiting for her
to speak, "any possibility of conversation is at an end."

"I did not come out here for conversation," replied Ruth. "I came, not
by my own wish, to hear something you said you particularly desired to
say. Do you not think the simplest thing, under the circumstances, would
be--to say it?"

He gave a short laugh, and looked at her in sheer desperation. Did she
know what she was pushing him into?

"I had forgotten," he said. "It was in my mind all the time; but now you
have made it easy for me indeed by coming to my assistance in this way.
I will make a fresh start."

He compressed his lips, and seemed to pull himself together. Then he
said, in a very level voice:

"Kindly give me your whole attention, Miss Deyncourt, so that I shall
not be obliged to repeat anything. The deer are charming, I know; but
you have seen deer before, and will no doubt again. I am sorry that I am
obliged to speak to you about myself, but a little autobiography is
unavoidable. Perhaps you know that about three years ago I succeeded my
father. From being penniless, and head over ears in debt, I became
suddenly a rich man--not by my father's will, who entailed every acre of
the estates here and elsewhere on Ralph, and left everything he could to
him. I had thought of telling you what my best friends have never known,
why I am not still crippled by debt. I had thought of telling you why,
at five-and-thirty, I was still unmarried, for my debts were not the
reason; but I will not trouble you with that now. It is enough to say
that I found myself in a position which, had I been a little younger,
with rather a different past, I should have enjoyed more than I did. I
was well received in English society when, after a lapse of several
years and a change of fortune, I returned to it. If I had thought I was
well received for myself, I should have been a fool. But I came bac