All the time he was speaking Angel looked at him steadily, her colour had faded, she now was white to her lips. As he concluded, she cast down her eyes, and seemed to address the stones at her feet, as she whispered in a strange, subdued voice: "Why do you say all this? You don't love me, cousin Philip—and I—look for so much love—because I've had so little." Then raising her eyes by a strenuous act of will, and speaking in a firmer tone, she continued:
"You think I am a foolish, impulsive schoolgirl—you wish to give me a home, but grandmamma offers me the same—a home, and to make me happy."
"I believe I can do better than your grandmother."
"And that would not be saying much, would it?" she retorted. "I gathered from the way people looked, and hinted—you know I was always clever at finding things out—that it was very wrong of me to have rushed headlong to India. I placed you in a dilemma—you were quite at your wits' end to know how to dispose of your white elephant—and now, you are asking me to marry you—and thus settle the difficulty."
Her faltering words cast a revealing glare on the situation—there was absolute truth in what she said.
"I am not," and she caught her breath sharply, "as silly as I seem—I expect—in short—I will have more than you can give. You cannot make me happy unless you love me—what you offer me is imitation. It is not big enough, or strong enough, to hold me—I want real love, not make-believe. I—am sure—it has cost you a great deal—to—to——" she hesitated, "speak! and I thank you—but I will go home by next mail, and live with grandmamma after all."
As she came to this decision and a full stop, Angel sat down breathless and trembling. But now that the treasure was slipping from his grasp, the prize not so easily attained as he supposed, of course Gascoigne closed his hand upon it greedily.
"Angel, listen to me," he cried impetuously. "Don't talk of make-believes, and your grandmother, and such wild nonsense—I do love you—not in a romantic story-book fashion, but sincerely and faithfully in my own way. I was engaged once to a girl—you know?"
"Yes," she assented sharply.
"That came to an end ten years ago. You are the only woman I shall ever love again—I swear." He spoke in a tone of grave restrained emotion.