"Yes."
"Then he'll keep you to it, be sure of that. What a pity you did not take time to consider what you would do."
"I considered this quite quickly," says Dulce: "I said to myself that nothing could be worse than marrying a man I did not love."
"Yes, yes, of course," says Roger, warmly. "Nothing could be worse than marrying Gower."
"And then I thought that perhaps he might relent; and then, besides—I didn't know what to do, because," here two large tears fall down her cheeks and break upon her clasped hands, "because, you see, you had not asked me to marry you, and I thought that perhaps you never might ask me, and that so my promise meant very little."
"How could you have thought that?" says Roger, deeply grieved.
"Well, you hadn't said a word, you know," murmurs she, sorrowfully.
"How could I?" groans Dare. "When you were going of your own free will, and my folly, to marry another fellow."
"There was very little free will about it," whispers she, tearfully.
"Well, I'm sure I don't know what's going to be done now," says Mr. Dare, despairingly, sinking into a chair near the table, and letting his head fall in a distracting fashion into his hands.