Alexander purposely kept his old servant in waiting until they had finished. Then he bid Dorset remove the service.
As soon as he found himself alone with Drusilla, he saw that the girl was trembling excessively.
“Don’t be alarmed, dear love, and don’t distrust me,” he said, drawing his chair beside her. “I asked you just now if you knew how I loved you. You did not reply, but I will answer the question for you. No, Drusilla, you don’t know how I love, for I love you so much that I wish to make you my own forever and ever. Drusilla, you must be my wife, never to be parted from me again.”
She looked up in his face, her arched brows, dilated eyes and parted lips expressing amazement, delight, and even terror.
“You will be my wife, Drusilla?” he whispered, drawing her towards him.
And then her overwrought heart found relief in tears, and she wept freely on his bosom. When at length she ceased to sob, and grew quiet, he bent his head down to hers and whispered:
“All this means ‘yes,’ does it not, my own?”
“But—but—Miss Anna!” murmured the girl, scarcely trusting her voice to speak.
“Oh, Miss Anna——” He nearly uttered an oath consigning his cousin to perdition, but he caught himself in time, and added: “Miss Anna and myself are parted (by a hundred miles of space,”) was his mental reservation the first.
“She has broken with you, then?” said Drusilla, who never dreamed of such a possibility as his breaking faith with any one.