"Not that," whispered the man, with dry lips. "You might have called me so when we stood under the Witches' Oak, but now"--he made a despairing gesture--"that is all at an end."
"Do you take back your proposal of marriage?" asked the girl, colouring.
"I do, because I must." Vivian looked at her hungrily, as though he would have given his life to take her in his arms--as was, indeed, the case. "If I did not love you so much," he said hoarsely, "I would lie; but loving you as I do, I must speak the truth."
"The whole of it?" she asked bitterly.
"So much as I may tell Miss Hedge."
"Miss Hedge?"
"I have no right to call you otherwise now," said Paslow sadly. "I told you of a bar which prevented my asking you to be my wife?"
"Yes; and you said that it had been removed."
"I was wrong. It is not removed. I had no right to speak."
"What is this bar?"