"Would you have the courage of your convictions?" he asked suddenly.
"I—I don't know. Which convictions, for instance?"
"Well, if you did not believe in marriage, would you have the courage to override public opinion?"
"But I do believe in marriage," she said simply.
"Do you believe that love can be bound with a chain, then?"
"There should be no question of binding—A marriage without love is no marriage at all in my eyes."
He smiled at her earnest simplicity.
"That is all very well—for you," he said, "but for me? I may not marry to please myself."
His voice had a caressing cadence, charged with regret, his eyes were mournful under the long lashes. Perhaps for the moment he was really a victim to self pity. Like most emotional people, he was apt to believe in the sincerity of a passing feeling, even the appropriate pose of the hour investing him with a fleeting reality of sentiment.
"No," said Ragna, "that is true. You cannot be free to follow your heart, it is part of the price you must pay."