He laid his hand supplicatingly on her arm.
"Don't touch me!" she said, and her eyes filled with dangerous light.
"Now, Esther! ...Come, don't lay it on too thick!"
"Go away. Don't speak to me!"
"Just listen one moment, that's all."
"Go away. If you don't, I'll go straight to Mrs. Barfield."
She passed into the kitchen and shut the door in his face. He had gone a
trifle pale, and after lingering a few moments he hurried away to the
stables, and Esther saw him spring on the box.
As it was frequent with Esther not to speak to anyone with whom she had
had a dispute for a week or fifteen days, her continued sulk excited
little suspicion, and the cause of the quarrel was attributed to some
trifle. Sarah said--
"Men are such fools. He is always begging of her to forgive him. Just look
at him--he is still after her, following her into the wood-shed."
She rarely answered him a yes or no, but would push past him, and if he
forcibly barred the way she would say, "Let me go by, will you? You are
interfering with my work." And if he still insisted, she spoke of
appealing to Mrs. Barfield. And if her heart sometimes softened, and an
insidious thought whispered that it did not matter since they were going
to be married, instinct forced her to repel him; her instinct was that she
could only win his respect by refusing forgiveness for a long while.
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