“Then that settles it!” he said definitely. “You must give me permission to announce our engagement at once.”
But Deb shook her head.
“Your mother told you that I had thought better of it. It’s the truth, so you may as well accept it without argument. I expect you’ll be rather relieved, as a matter of fact. You’re too nice to be married for your property, Christian, and I think I’m too nice to be married for pity.”
“Pity!” He took her hands and turned her towards him, keenly searching her face. “Why, Debbie dear, you can’t really think anything as silly as that! We’re such good friends, you and I—don’t let my mother’s bitterness wrench us apart.”
“We can still be good friends,” she answered steadily. “It isn’t as if there had ever been any—anything that mattered—between us. These last two weeks don’t count—not as they would have counted if we’d—cared. You were feeling chivalrous up at Linacre, and I was lonely, thinking of the day when I should have to leave Kilne. That’s not sufficient foundation for a lifetime together, and we knew it well enough, even then. Let’s go back to what we were. After all, no—no harm—has been done.”
“No harm?” Christian echoed. “It depends what you mean by that. How can we go back? And of course these two weeks count! Do you think a man ever feels the same towards a woman after he has once thought of her definitely as his wife, even for a day? It’s absurd to talk like that. You’re mine, and I mean to keep you. Have I done anything unconsciously to make you change your mind?—or is it just my mother’s influence and no more? You don’t like me less than you did, do you?” he went on earnestly. “I’ll cut my throat if you don’t go on liking me, Debbie dear!”
She laughed, though the tears were behind.
“You’re as nice as ever you can be! I’ve told you that once already—too nice to be handed over to anybody you don’t want so frightfully that you’d climb the stars for her. And that isn’t how you feel towards a ‘friend,’ Squire Lakin’ Lyndesay!”
“But I do!” he protested hotly. “I don’t only think of you as a comrade, though you’re the best a man could want. I think of you as the woman I love——”
“Ah, don’t say it!” She stopped him, her voice full of pain, and they stood silent, staring out of the window.