on."

"Why--for Heaven's sake?"

"I had rather not tell you."

"But I must know."

"You cannot."

"I shall ask Lady Meryon."

"I forbid you."

And then the unexpected happened, and an unbearable impulse swept me
into folly--or was it wisdom?

"Listen to me. I would not have said it yet, but this settles it. I want
you to marry me. I want it atrociously!"

It was a strange word. What I felt for her at that moment was difficult
to describe. I endured it like a pain that could only be assuaged by
her presence, but I endured it angrily. We were walking on the sunset
road--very deserted and quiet at the time. The place was propitious if
nothing else was.

She looked at me in transparent astonishment;

"Mr. Clifden, are you dreaming? You can't mean what you say."

"Why can't I? I do. I want you. You have the key of all I care for. I
think of the world without you and find it tasteless."

"Surely you have all the world can give? What do you want more?"

"The power to enjoy it--to understand it. You have got that--I haven't.
I want you always with me to interpret, like a guide to a blind fellow.
I am no better."

"Say like a dog, at once!" she interrupted. "At least you are frank
enough to put it on that ground. You have not said you love me. You
could not say it."

"I don't know whether I do or not. I know nothing about love. I want
you. Indescribably. Perhaps that is love--is it? I never wanted any one
before. I have tried to get away and I can't."

I was brutally frank, you see. She compelled my very thoughts.

"Why have you tried?"

"Because every man likes freedom. But I like you better." "I can tell
you the reason," she said in her gentle unwavering voice. "I am Lady
Meryon's governess, and an undesirable. You have felt that?"

"Don't make me out such a snob. No--yes. You force me into honesty.
I did feel it at first like the miserable fool I am, but I could kick
myself when I think of that now. It is utterly forgotten. Take me and
make me what you will, and forgive me. Only tell me your secret of joy.
How is it you understand everything alive or dead? I want to live--to
see, to know."

It was a rhapsody like a boy's. Yet at the moment I was not even ashamed
of it, so sharp was my need.

"I think," she said, slowly, looking straight before her, "that I had
better be quite frank. I don't love you. I don't know what love means
in the Western sense. It has a very different meaning for me. Your v