"No," I faltered. I could not lie.
"Do you love me?"
"You're cruel to ask me that, when you——"
"When you ought to have seen long ago, that I was at your feet, that I was mad for you, that you were my one thought. I tried not to be a brute as well as a fool, so I stood aside and gave all the other men who were younger, and perhaps worthier, their chance. If you had loved anybody else I'd have let you alone. But I don't think one of those men made good. Do you love me, Barrie? Answer me now, as if we were alone together?"
"Yes," I whispered.
He caught me in his arms, and kissed me on the mouth, holding me close against his breast.
"Then," he said, "I am your husband. Are you my wife? I ask you before these witnesses, who know us both."
"I am your wife," I repeated after him.
"This time," he exclaimed, "we are safely married, and not all the world can part us now."
Basil and Aline went away before we did. Aline said she was going to Glasgow, to tell Barbara how I had treated them, and to see the man she was engaged to marry: that it was all a mistake, if not a deliberate falsehood on my part, about her thinking Ian cared for her. Basil went with her, not saying anything at all, except: