“None.”
“There is, then, no charge of this, that, or t' other?”
“I will answer no more. I have told you fairly that if you take me for your wife you most be prepared to stand in the breach between me and the world, and meet whatever assails me as one prepared. Are you ready for this?”
“I'm not afraid of the danger—”
“So, then, your fears are only for the cause?”
It was with the very faintest touch of scorn these words were spoken; but he marked it, and reddened over face and forehead.
“When that cause will have become my own, you 'll see that I 'll hesitate little about defending it.”
“That's all that I ask for, all that I wish. This is strange courtship,” said she, trying to laugh; “but let us carry it through consistently. I conclude you are not rich; neither am I,—at least, for the present; a very few weeks, however, will put me in possession of a large property. It is in land in America. The legal formalities which are necessary will be completed almost immediately, and my co-heir is now coming over from the States to meet me, and establish his claim also. These are all confidences, remember, for I now speak to you freely; and, in the same spirit that I make them, I ask you to trust me,—to trust me fully and wholly, with a faith that says, 'I will wait to the end—to the very end! '”
“Let this be my pledge,” said he, taking her hand and kissing it. “Faith!” said he, after a second or two, “I can scarcely believe in my good luck. It seems to be every moment so like a dream to think that you consent to take me; just, too, when I was beginning to feel that fortune had clean forgotten me. You are not listening to me, not minding a word I say. What is it, then, you are thinking of?”
“I was plotting,” said she, gravely.