uld be a
failure with me?'

'Your lack of foresight chiefly in indulging feelings that were not
encouraged. That, and my uncle's indiscreet permission to you to travel
with us, have precipitated our relations in a way that I could neither
foresee nor avoid, though of late I have had apprehensions that it might
come to this. You vex and disturb me by such words of regret.'

'Not more than you vex and disturb me. But you cannot hate the man who
loves you so devotedly?'

'I have said before I don't hate you. I repeat that I am interested in
your family and its associations because of its complete contrast with
my own.' She might have added, 'And I am additionally interested just
now because my uncle has forbidden me to be.'

'But you don't care enough for me personally to save my happiness.'

Paula hesitated; from the moment De Stancy confronted her she had
felt that this nocturnal conversation was to be a grave business. The
cathedral clock struck three. 'I have thought once or twice,' she said
with a naivete unusual in her, 'that if I could be sure of giving peace
and joy to your mind by becoming your wife, I ought to endeavour to
do so and make the best of it--merely as a charity. But I believe that
feeling is a mistake: your discontent is constitutional, and would go on
just the same whether I accepted you or no. My refusal of you is purely
an imaginary grievance.'

'Not if I think otherwise.'

'O no,' she murmured, with a sense that the place was very lonely and
silent. 'If you think it otherwise, I suppose it is otherwise.'

'My darling; my Paula!' he said, seizing her hand. 'Do promise me
something. You must indeed!'

'Captain De Stancy!' she said, trembling and turning away. 'Captain De
Stancy!' She tried to withdraw her fingers, then faced him, exclaiming
in a firm voice a third time, 'Captain De Stancy! let go my hand; for I
tell you I will not marry you!'

'Good God!' he cried, dropping her hand. 'What have I driven you to say
in your anger! Retract it--O, retract it!'

'Don't urge me further, as you value my good opinion!'

'To lose you now, is to lose you for ever. Come, please answer!'

'I won't be compelled!' she interrupted with vehemence. 'I am resolved
not to be yours--not to give you an answer to-night! Never, never will I
be reasoned out of my intention; and I say I won't answer you to-night!
I should never have let you be so much with me but for pity of you; and
now it is come to this!'