"You are a good woman, Una," said Blake sadly, putting his hand caressingly upon her head, "but I think there is a limit even to your forbearance."
"What nonsense you talk," she said lightly. "I understand everything--you are not responsible for the sins of your parents."
"I cannot marry you now," he replied in a low voice. "I can offer you nothing except poverty and a dishonoured name."
"You can offer me yourself," said Una with a smile, "and that is all I want. As to your dishonoured name, you forget you have given that up--your name now is Reginald Garsworth."
"It was, but I surrender it with the property."
"I hardly see that, seeing there is no question of surrender. Yes," she went on, seeing the astonishment depicted on his face, "things are going to remain exactly as they are. You will still be titular lord of the manor, and we will look upon this conspiracy of your unhappy parents as if it had never existed."
"Impossible," he muttered. "I cannot rob you of your property."
"Don't I tell you there is no robbery?" she replied rapidly. "As man and wife we will share the property in common, so there is no necessity for you to surrender what will soon come back to you by marriage."
"I had given up all hope of the marriage!"
"Ah! you don't know how determined I am when I take a thing into my head," she said playfully. "We will be married next week, and you will retain the property just as if nothing had occurred. No one knows the truth of the affair except your parents, and they will not speak."