"Then you don't love me?" he cried in despair, "You cold perfection of womanhood, you don't love me?"
Una would have replied indignantly, but she began to see the nervous excitable temperament of the young man and recognised that, being under the influence of a strong emotion, he was not answerable for the way in which he spoke.
"No," she replied gently, "I cannot love you, Doctor Nestley--even if I did, I could hardly respond to your passion after so short an acquaintance; come, doctor, you have been worn out by your nightly attendance on my cousin, you are not well and speak without thinking, forget the words you have spoken and let things be as they were."
It was a gracious thing of her to say, for, in spite of his evident earnestness, she felt indignant at the manner in which he had spoken to her.
"Things can never be as they were," he replied dully. "I have seen you and that has changed my whole life--is there no chance?"
"There is no chance," she replied coldly, and turned away to intimate the interview was over. Even as she did so, he sprang forward with a fierce light in his eyes.
"You love another," he hissed out between his clenched teeth.
Una turned on him in a dignified way with her eyes blazing with anger.
"How dare you speak to me in this manner?" she said wrathfully. "Do not try my patience too far--I have given you an answer to the mad words you spoke--now go."
She pointed to the door with a commanding gesture and the young man drooping his head on his breast, moved towards it.