'I don't believe in atavism,' observed the American, 'but that's neither here nor there. You know what you wrote me. Do you believe she'll be miserable with Logotheti or not?'
'I think she will,' Lady Maud answered truthfully. 'But I may be wrong.'
'No; you're right. I know it. But marriage is a gamble anyway, as you know better than any one. Are you equally sure that she would be miserable with me? Dead sure, I mean.'
'No, I'm not sure. But that's not a reason——'
'It's a first-rate reason. I care for that lady, and I want her to be happy, and as you admit that she will have a better chance of happiness with me than with Logotheti, I'm going to marry her myself, not only because I want to, but because it will be a long sight better for her. See? No fault in that line of reasoning, is there?' [{62}]
'So far as reasoning goes——' Lady Maud's tone was half an admission.
'That's all I wanted you to say,' interrupted the American. 'So that's settled, and you're going to help me.'
'No,' answered Lady Maud quietly; 'I won't help you to break off that engagement. But if it should come to nothing, without your interfering—that is, by the girl's own free will and choice and change of mind, I'd help you to marry her if I could.'
'But you admit that she's going to be miserable,' said Van Torp stubbornly.
'I'm sorry for her, but it's none of my business. It's not honourable to try and make trouble between engaged people, no matter how ill-matched they may be.'