"We shall be so happy, you and I and papa. We shall lead the country life, though he'll have to come to London now and again for his serious 'frivolities.' And I shall make you care for me. Now you do not care for me nearly so much as I do for you."
"You bewilder me, Sylvia."
"Ah! yes, you will care for me. I shall not let you cheat me."
"You talk as if my youth were not flown, you lovely child."
"It is not flown. You do not mean to say you used up your youth during those hard years that lined your face and sowed grey hairs in your head? Ah! no, you were saving it up for me."
"It is too incredible!"
"Take time, then, to think, good gentleman," said Sylvia, with laughter dancing bewitchingly about her mouth; but her eyes were tender.
"If I take time, all this will take wings like a dream and fly away."
"Then keep it," said Sylvia.
"My life—what remains of it—will be devoted to you."