“But why not? Would you live in this dull hotel all by yourself, Hally?”
“I do not know! I am so very unhappy! Leave me, Anthony, for God’s sake, leave me, whilst there is time! You do not know the risk you may be running by remaining by my side! How can I consent to let you, whom I love like my very life, run any risk for my sake! Oh! I love you—I love you!” cried the impassioned girl, as she clung tightly to him. “You are my lord and master and my king, and I will never, never be so selfish as to harm you for the sake of my own gratification. You must go away—put the seas between us—never see me, never write or speak to me more—only save yourself, my beloved, save yourself!”
He smiled compassionately, as he would have smiled at the ravings of a child, as he raised her from her lowly position and placed her in a chair.
“Do you know what I am going to do, little woman?” he said cheerfully. “I am going to leave you all alone to think this matter over until to-morrow. By that time you will have been able to compare the opinions of two people who do not care a jot about you, with those of mine who love you so dearly. Think well over what they have said to you, and I have said to you, and you have said to me! Remember, that if you adhere to your present determination, you will make both yourself and me most unhappy, and do no one any good. As for myself, I venture to say that if I lose you my grief and disappointment will be so great, that, in all probability, I shall never do any good work again. But be a sensible girl—make up your mind to marry me, and give the lie to all this nonsense, and I’ll write a book that will astonish the world! Come, Hally, is it to be ruin or success for me?—Ruin to spend my life without the only woman I have ever cared for, or success to win my wife and a companion who will help me in my work and make my happiness complete?”
He kissed her tear-stained face several times, and left her with a bright smile.
“This time to-morrow, remember, and I shall come with the licence in my pocket.”
CHAPTER XVII.
Doctor Phillips did not meet Margaret and her husband until luncheon time and then they were full of an encounter which they had had during their morning walk.
“Only fancy, Doctor!” exclaimed Margaret, with more animation than she had displayed of late, “Arthur and I have been shopping in Regent Street, and whom do you think we met?”
“I give it up, my dear,” replied the doctor, helping himself to cold beef. “I am not good at guessing riddles.”