"I suppose my conduct does strike you as ungentlemanly," said the young man piteously; "but what could I do? I love you devotedly, madly, and you will not allow me even to tell you so. You instruct your servants to turn me away from the door like a beggar. Is it a crime to love you?"
"No, Mr. Chatham," said the girl more gently, "it is not a crime to love a woman; but it is at least a serious blunder to adopt the method you have selected of showing your affection, and it is certainly not generous to force it upon her as you are doing."
"What else can I do?" he repeated doggedly. "Here am I suddenly obliged to leave New York for a long time,—perhaps for ever,—and unable to get a single word with you. I called yesterday morning and was informed that you were at that artist fellow's studio. Then I wrote you a letter asking for an interview and I left it there for you myself. The only notice you took of it was to give instructions to your butler not to admit me if I called again. I cannot go away like that, without a ray of hope to lighten my exile, and leave you here surrounded by a lot of men who are anxious to marry you."
The tender-hearted girl felt a growing pity for the awkward and vulgar young man in whom she began vaguely to discern a genuine suffering.
"I am sorry, Mr. Chatham," she said, "more sorry than I can say. But what can I do? I do not care for you in the way you wish, and affection is not to be coerced. I have done the best I could to discourage you, because——"
"I know you have," interrupted Chatham; "you have avoided me, and snubbed me, and taken every way you could to show that you do not like me."
"It would have been mistaken kindness to do otherwise," said Agnes gently.
"No, it wouldn't," exclaimed the accountant; "I don't ask you to love me; not at once, at any rate. But give me a show; give me time; give me a little hope——"
"I cannot do that," said the girl in a low tone.
"Why can't you?" urged the young man excitedly. "I have sacrificed everything for you; I have given up all I had; I have lost my position; I have risked my life——"