"Am I to understand, Miss Darrell," he asked, "that you refused Captain Langton last evening?"
"Yes," she replied, distinctly.
"Will you permit me to ask why?" he continued.
"Because I do not love him, Sir Oswald. I may even go further, and say I do not respect him."
"Yet he is a gentleman by birth and education, handsome, most agreeable in manner, devoted to you, and my friend."
"I do not love him," she said again; "and the Darrells are too true a race to marry without love."
The allusion to his race pleased the baronet, in spite of his anger.
"Did Captain Langton give you to understand the alternative?" asked Sir Oswald. "Did he tell you my resolve in case you should refuse him?"
She laughed a clear, ringing laugh, in which there was a slight tinge of mockery. Slight though it was, Sir Oswald's face flushed hotly as he heard it.
"He told me that you would disinherit me if I did not marry him; but I told him you would never ignore the claim of the last living Darrell—you would not pass me over and make a stranger your heir."