But the white lids drooped over the happy eyes.
"Look at me, Madaline," he repeated, "and say, 'Norman, I do love you. I will forget all the nonsense I have talked about inequality of position, and will be your wife.'"
"In justice to yourself I cannot say it."
He felt the little hands tremble in his grasp, and he released them with a kiss.
"You will be compelled to say it some day, darling. You might as well try now. If I cannot win you for my wife, I will have no wife, Madaline. Ah, now you are sorry you have vexed me!
"'And so it was--half sly, half shy;
You would and would not, little one,
Although I pleaded tenderly
And you and I were all alone.'
Why are you so hard, Madaline? I am sure you like me a little; you dare not raise your eyes to mine and say, 'I do not love you, Norman.'"
"No," she confessed, "I dare not. But there is love and love; the lowest love is all self, the highest is all sacrifice. I like the highest."
And then her eyes fell on the peaches, and she gave a little cry of alarm.
"What will the duchess say?" she cried. "Oh, Lord Arleigh, let me go."