"Look at me, Katherine!" and now his voice was full of command.
Then she slowly raised her gray-green eyes and he saw that they were troubled, in spite of the passion that lay in their depths.
"Why do you come here and speak to me like this?" and in her voice there was reproach. "We said farewell at Valfreyne—that was the end—I understood—Why do you come again to trouble me now?"
"Because I could not keep away—because I love you, darling child."
She drew back, shivering with the pain of the struggle which was developing in her soul.
"Hush, you must not say that to me, I ask you not to, please."
But since coldness and repulsion were not what he read in her glance, her words did not discourage him.
"I was very foolish at Valfreyne, Katherine, ever to have said farewell, but now I have come here to Blissington to tell you that I love you passionately, my darling, and your dear sympathy and understanding saw into my mind, and grasped the prejudices therein. But now the blindness has fallen from my eyes—I adore you, my Beloved One—Katherine, I want you to be my wife."
His voice had never been more beautiful. His splendid presence had never appeared more impressive, nor the fascination of the man more supreme. And he was there, a suppliant before her asking her to be his wife!
For a few seconds her brain reeled. The summit of her ambition was reached—and not ambition alone, but what now seemed to matter more, the realisation of true love. Both were there for her to take and to enjoy. The fateful moment had come. She was face to face with the great problem of her life. How could she relinquish all this glory, just to keep faith with her ideal of right?