For a moment they looked at each other across the gate , sheer amazement and bewilderment holding John Lincoln mute . Sidney , burning with shame , saw that this stranger was exceedingly good to look upon -- tall , clean-limbed , broad-shouldered , with clear-cut bronzed features and a chin and eyes that would have done honour to any man . John Lincoln , among all his confused sensations , was aware that this slim , agitated young creature before him was the loveliest thing he ever had seen , so lithe was her figure , so glossy and dark and silken her bare , wind-ruffled hair , so big and brown and appealing her eyes , so delicately oval her flushed cheeks . He felt that she was frightened and in trouble , and he wanted to comfort and reassure her . But how could she be Sidney Richmond ? `` I do n't understand , '' he said perplexedly . `` Oh ! '' Sidney threw out her hands in a burst of passionate protest . `` No , and you never will understand -- I ca n't make you understand . '' `` I do n't understand , '' said John Lincoln again . `` Can you be Sidney Richmond -- the Sidney Richmond who has written to me for four years ? '' `` I am . '' `` Then , those letters -- '' `` Were all lies , '' said Sidney bluntly and desperately . `` There was nothing true in them -- nothing at all . This is my home . We are poor . Everything I told you about it and my life was just imagination . '' `` Then why did you write them ? '' he asked blankly . `` Why did you deceive me ? ''
`` Oh , I did n't mean XXXXX deceive you !
about across at before for in of that to with