"I believe you wish to take me by storm," she pouted, not ill-pleased.
"What! capture my own city?"
"Your own city? What do you mean?"
"I mean that I dwell in your heart. That city is mine."
"How conceited you are."
"Indeed, I am not. You know quite well that I am only speaking the truth. I loved you in the past and I love you now. All preliminaries of love were gone through ages ago. Why fence, as if we now meet for the first time? When I saw you in Mrs. Barrast's drawing-room I said, 'She is mine!' When you saw me you said, 'I am his'——"
"I'm sure I didn't," interrupted Alice hastily.
"You thought it, though."
"I shan't tell you."
"There is no need for you to do so. Oh, my dear," he went on entreatingly, "is there so much love in the world that you and I can afford to throw what we possess away? All my life I have been lonely: all my life I have wanted to meet you, to adore you, to——"