"Which will concern you," concluded Raven, as she paused. "That seems probable certainly, but you alone can decide thereupon. I shall refer him to you for an answer."
"Spare us both that," interposed the girl, hastily. "It would be as mortifying to him to take a refusal from my lips as it would be painful for me to speak it."
"You have made up your mind, then, to decline his offer?"
She looked up at him with great reproachful eyes.
"Can you ask me? You know that I have given my word to another."
"And you know that I do not recognise that promise, given in haste, as a pledge which is to bind you. 'I have given my word to another.' A little while ago it was, 'I love another!'"
The observation must have struck home, for Gabrielle's face was suffused with a deep crimson blush, and she evaded a direct reply.
"Albert von Wilten was an object of indifference to me before," she answered; "since I have found out that his suit is to be pressed upon me, I have taken a dislike to him. I will never be his wife."
The Baron drew a long deep breath which seemed to expand his chest; but he replied, in the icy tone he had maintained throughout the conversation:
"I shall neither compel nor persuade you to make a choice. If, indeed, you are firmly resolved to refuse young Wilten, it will, no doubt, be better that his proposal should not be made. I will give the Colonel to understand that there is no hope for him. It shall be done to-morrow."