“I decline to answer. If the Viscount desires my society I cannot very well refuse it. He is an old friend and neighbor. As your wife you may command me, but again I repeat I am not yet your wife.”
“And never will be,” Sir Harold replied, with terrible calmness, “unless you respect my wishes now.”
She endeavored to slip his ring from her finger, but was seized with an awful faintness.
“I believe that it will kill me if I lose you, Elaine,” he went on, “but I cannot marry a woman who accepts the attentions of other men. I will leave you to think it over, and to decide between me and Rivington. Bah! how I loathe his name! If you love me as I love you my happiness is safe. If you will not give me your promise, I swear that I will never willingly look upon your face again.”
He sprang toward her and pressed her passionately to his heart; he showered a hundred kisses on her face mingled with tears that seemed scalding hot.
“Good-by, Elaine! I can stand this no longer,” he groaned.
He rushed from the room, and for a long time Lady Elaine Seabright was like one in a dark dream.
Her first impulse when she recovered her numbed senses was to cry:
“Oh, my darling, my darling, come back to me!”
Then Margaret Nugent was announced, and Lady Elaine told her all.