"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"If you ever try this on again, I may. One doesn't stand threats, even from the sweetheart he loves better than everything else—that is, if he is a man worth having." "But I didn't threaten you! I only—"
"Said what you must never say again, if you don't want to see me wedded down in yon church, with a farm of my own, and a fortune waiting, which they are willing to pay down, and ask no questions. A pretty lass pining for me too."
"Pretty! Oh, Richard, this is too bad! You have told me a hundred times that of the two, I was—"
The girl broke off and turned away her face.
"And I have told you the truth, else they would have had me fast before this. Both the young master and the old man were threatening me with the law. You might have heard them."
"No. I was never near enough."
"Well, they did, though; and but for you, I might have given in."
"But you never—never will!"