She did not shrink.
"Imogene, I want you for my wife. Will you listen to my prayer, and make my home forever happy with your presence?"
Ah, now she showed feeling; now she started and drew back, putting out her hands as if the idea he had advanced was insupportable to her. But it was only for a moment. Before he could say to himself that it was all over, that his worst fears had been true, and that nothing but the sense of some impassable gulf between them could have made her recoil from him like this, she had dropped her hands and turned toward him with a look whose deep inquiry and evident struggle after an understanding of his claims, spoke of a mind clouded by trouble, but not alienated from himself by fear.
She did not speak, however,—not for some few minutes, and when she did, her words came in short and hurried gasps.
"You are kind," was what she said. "To be your—wife"—she had difficulty in uttering the word, but it came at last—"would be an honor and a protection. I appreciate both. But I am in no mood to-night to listen to words of love from any man. Perhaps six months hence——"
But he already had her in his arms. The joy and relief he felt were so great he could not control himself. "Imogene," he murmured, "my Imogene!" And scarcely heeded her when, in a burst of subdued agony, she asked to be released, saying that she was ill and tired, and must be allowed to withdraw to her room.
But a second appeal woke him from his dream. If his worst fears were without foundation; if her mind was pure of aught that unfitted her to be his wife, there was yet much that was mysterious in her conduct, and, consequently, much which he longed to have explained.
"Imogene," he said, "I must ask you to remain a moment longer. Hard as it is for me to distress you, there is a question which I feel it necessary to put to you before you go. It is in reference to the fearful crime which took place to-day. Why did you take such an interest in it, and why has it had such an effect upon you that you look like a changed woman to-night?"
Disengaging herself from his arms, she looked at him with the set composure of one driven to bay, and asked:
"Is there any thing strange in my being interested in a murder perpetrated on a person whose name I have frequently heard mentioned in this house?"