"How can you ask me such a heartless question?"
"Don't you see what it has done for us? Has it not taught us that"—very tenderly this—"we love each other?" His tone alone would have brought her round to view anything in his light. "And somehow," he goes on, after a necessary pause—"I mean," with an effort that speaks volumes for his sense of propriety, "Gower will give in, and absolve you from your promise. He may as well, you know, when he sees the game is up."
"But when will he see that?"
"He evidently saw it to-day."
"Well, he was very far from giving in to-day, or even dreaming of granting absolution."
"Well, we must make him see it even more clearly," says Roger, desperately.
"But how?" dejectedly.
"By making violent love to me all day long, and by letting me make it to you. It will wear him out," says Mr. Dare confidently. "He won't be able to stand it. Would—would you much mind trying to make violent love to me?"
"Mind it?" says Dulce, enthusiastically, plainly determined to render herself up a willing (very willing) sacrifice upon the altar of the present necessity. "I should like it!"
This naïve speech brings Roger, if possible, a little closer to her.