“Sorry, why, madam?”
“Because circumstances are changed, now. I no longer oppose your wish to marry her.”
“Indeed, and in what has the lady changed?”
“She has become the adopted child of a man who, at least, holds a high position in commercial circles.”
“And is, I am told, engaged to marry the person whom that man intends to make his heir.”
“Ivon, I do not believe it!”
“If it were possible for me to doubt what is an admitted fact, my own position is the same.”
“What, have you ceased to care for her?” asked the lady in a voice rendered sharp by intense anxiety.
The young man answered her with four of the most mournful words that ever brought sadness to a human heart,
“It is too late!”