“You have said truly,” I answered. “Ice, marble, anything hard and cold is all the reply that I can give—and it is fitting, for you love me no more than I love you.”
The man turned white and stammered forth,
“You—you wrong me. Without love why should any man seek to make you his wife?”
“True,” I answered stung by his words—“true, there is something here quite incomprehensible, but it is not love.”
He broke into a passionate torrent of protestations, wrung my hand in his, and even attempted to throw his arms around me; but I retreated from him in dismay.
“You will not believe me,” he said, standing in my path pale and breathless. “You will not even believe that I love you?”
“No, I do not believe it!”
“Who—who has poisoned your ear against me? Not that canting priest; not—not”——
“No one has ever uttered a word against you in my presence,” I replied.
“Perhaps not, but you are so positive—you may have been impressed with some evil belief against me.”