“There, now, you said we were done with that question.”
“It was you who urged it upon me, and who became angry with me because I put you off.”
“Again that was yesterday, and this is to-day, as I told you.”
“Nevertheless, I put the question again.”
“Oh, I don’t know. What would you do if you were I, Étienne?”
“I should do as my conscience and my Church bade me, rather than obey my father.” He looked at her again with those narrowed eyes, the expression of which Alaine was beginning to dread.
“Thank you for your advice, sir. My father is not likely to command me to do anything wrong; and even if he did——”
“Even if he did,” repeated her cousin, “you would be taken to a convent and be separated from him, as you well know. There would be one way out of it, Alaine.”
“And that?” She looked up at him with all the confidence of her youth shining in her piquant little face.
“Would be to marry me,” he said, slowly.