Esmeralda shook her head.
“Although we have known each other for so short a time, I have learned to value the prize I am striving for, and I know that if you will say ‘Yes,’ you will make me very happy; and I will do my best to make you happy. My whole life shall be devoted to you.”
He paused again. It was hard work, this proposing to a girl without telling her that you loved her.
“It will be the study of my life to gratify your every wish. I know that I am quite unworthy of you—that there are many men less unworthy—but I will do my best to make you happy, if you will trust yourself to me. I do not ask you if you care for me; that could scarcely be, seeing how short a time you have known me, but I will try to win your love, and I hope that I shall succeed. What will you say?”
Esmeralda’s brows were drawn straight, and her lips closed. She felt troubled and uncertain. She had only been made love to once before—but how differently! Her heart was beating fast, for his words, his voice, made sweet music in her ears.
“I don’t know,” she said, the troubled look more marked in her face.
“Think,” he said. “I can understand how much I have startled you, and that you should not be ready to give me an answer. What can I say to persuade you? I will say nothing more about myself; I will only say that if you will consent to be my wife, you will not only make me very happy, but all my people. They will be delighted to welcome you as one of ourselves.”
“Your father?” she said in a low voice.
“My father,” he answered; “my uncle, Selvaine, whom you have seen, and who likes and admires you very much. There is my cousin, Lilias, who lives with my father at Belfayre. They will all be very glad to welcome you. I think you would love my father and Lilias, and I am sure that they would love you.”
“He is the Duke of Belfayre?” said Esmeralda.