"I said, 'How d'ye do' to you."
"Nonsense" says he; and then, "I don't believe you said even so much. You gave me your hand, that was all; and that you gave reluctantly."
"Well, I can't help it," slowly. "Remember what I told you that last day."
"I don't want to remember anything," says he earnestly. "I want to start afresh—from this hour. And yet—there is one thing I must recall. You said—that last day—there was no love between us—that," slowly, "was not true. There is love on one side, at all events. Tita"—taking a step towards her—"I——"
She makes a sudden, wild gesture, throwing out her hands as if to ward off something.
"Don't!" cries she in a stifled voice. "Don't say it!"
"I must! I will!" says Rylton passionately. "I love you!" There is a dead silence, and in it he says again, "I love you!"
For a moment Tita looks as if she were going to faint; then the light returns to her eyes, the colour to her face.
"First her, then me," says she.
"Will you never forgive that?" asks he. "And it was before I saw you. When I did see you—Tita, do try to believe this much, at all events, that after our marriage I was true to you. I think now, that from the first moment I saw you I loved you. But I did not know it, and——"