“You mean, in fact, that I should say, 'don't go?'”
“I do.”
“Well, I 'm willing enough to say so, if my words are not to convey more than I intend by them.”
“I 'll risk even that,” said he, quickly. “Put your name to the bond, and we 'll let lawyers declare what it is worth after.”
“You frighten me, Mr. Maitland,” said she, and her tone showed that now at least she was sincere.
“Listen to me for one moment, Alice,” said he, taking her hand as he walked beside her. “You are fully as much the mistress of your fate as I am master of mine. You may consult, but you need not obey. Had it been otherwise, I never would have dared on a hardihood that would probably have wrecked my hopes. It is just as likely I never could satisfy the friends about you on the score of my fortune,—my means,—my station, and so on. It is possible, too, that scandal, which makes free with better men, may not have spared me, and that they who would have the right to advise you might say, 'Beware of that dreadful man.' I repeat, this is an ordeal my pride would feel it hard to pass through; and so I come to you, in all frankness, and declare I love you. To you—you alone—I will give every guarantee that a man may give of his honor and honesty. I will tell all my past, and so much as I mean for the future; and in return, I only ask for time,—nothing but time, Alice. I am not asking you for any pledge, simply that you will give me—what you would not have refused a mere acquaintance—the happiness of seeing you daily; and if—if, I say, you yourself should not deem the hand and the love I offer beneath you,—if you should be satisfied with the claims of him who would share his fortune with you,—that then—not till then—others should hear of it. Is this too much for me to ask, or you to give, Alice?”
“Even now I do not know what you ask of me.”
“First of all, that you bid me stay.”
“It is but this moment you have declared to me that what calls you away is of the very last importance to you in life.”
“The last but one, Alice,—the last is here;” and he kissed her hand as he spoke, but still with an air so deferent that she could not resent it.