"Your father has allowed me to come."
"I owe him duty, no doubt. Had he bade me never to see you, I hope that that would have sufficed. But there are other duties than that,—a duty even higher than that."
"What duty, Marion?"
"That which I owe to you. If I had promised to be your wife—"
"Do promise it."
"Had I so promised, should I not then have been bound to think first of your happiness?"
"You would have accomplished it, at any rate."
"Though I cannot be your wife I do not owe it you the less to think of it,—seeing all that you are willing to do for me,—and I will think of it. I am grateful to you."
"Do you love me?"
"Let me speak, Lord Hampstead. It is not civil in you to interrupt me in that way. I am thoroughly grateful, and I will not show my gratitude by doing that which I know would ruin you."