"You are brewing an awful mess and making any settlement impossible. But then you're a woman, and can be trusted to do that."
"Shall I send for Colonel Katona to come to us here?"
"No," he cried quickly, and then gave a desperate sigh.
"Yet you love Gareth," I said.
"I tell you I won't hear of her from you."
"And she has given you all her innocent heart, trusting you, believing in you, loving you, as only such a sweet pure girl as she could."
"I will not hear you," he cried again fiercely.
"If you will not, there is only one alternative." He was silent, so I continued. "I do not plead for her—don't think that. Her cause needs no pleading at my hands; because there are those who will not see injustice done to her. You know that—selfish, reckless, wicked and daring as you are. Her father is equally daring, and knows how to revenge a wrong done to her."
"What do you want to say, then? Can you see any way?"
"When you spoke to me that afternoon at Madame d'Artelle's house about her, I saw that you loved her; and what I would appeal to now is that love of yours for her."