"Certainly not?"
"I can make no such promise, nor should you ask it. I am to promise that under certain circumstances I would become your wife, when I know that under no circumstances I would do so."
"Under no circumstances?"
"Under none. What would you have me say, Mr. Anderson? Supposing yourself engaged to marry a girl—"
"I wish I were—to you."
"To a girl who loved you, and whom you loved?"
"There's no doubt about my loving her."
"You can follow my meaning, and I wish that you would do so. What would you think if you were to hear that she had promised to marry some one else in the event of your deserting her? It is out of the question. I mean to be the wife of Harry Annesley. Say that it is not to be so, and you will simply destroy me. Of one thing I may be sure,—that I will marry him or nobody. You promised me, not because your promise was necessary for that, but to spare me from trouble till that time shall come. And I am grateful,—very grateful." Then she left him suffering from another headache.
"Was there anything said between you and Mr. Anderson yesterday?" her aunt inquired, that afternoon.
"Why do you ask?"