"Yes, dearest, I still love you. I told you that I was not like other men, I love you for yourself. Whatever your past may have been, if you have been unfortunate, all the more reason that I should protect your future, that I should give you the shield of my name."
"But there is not only myself, there is the child," she said weakly.
He frowned but recovered himself instantly.
"The child? I shall love it as I would my own,—is it not yours? I shall recognise it—it will be mine."
"You are generous," she said, "but I cannot accept, it would be taking an unfair advantage—I should be doing you a wrong."
"That is as I choose to look at it, and I don't consider it is."
"But I don't love you."
"Do you love anyone else?" He asked with swift scrutiny.
"No."
"Then you will love me in time—as long as there is no one else I am sure of that. All I ask is that you should marry me, that you should accept the protection I offer. For the child's sake you must accept—you can't refuse your child an honourable name. You will come to love me dear, I know it, and until that time I will be a brother to you, a friend, nothing more. All I ask is the privilege of helping you!"