"And will you be pleased to tell me, Colonel Hubert, why it was that you did not propose to ... to anybody else, but me?"
"Because I loved you, and you only."
"Because I loved you, and you only," repeated Agnes.
"Is that an echo?" said Colonel Hubert.
"No!" replied Agnes ... "it is only the answer to your question."
"Then, exactly when I was occupied in finding reasons incontrovertible why the niece of Mrs. Barnaby should never be loved by mortal man, the young, the lovely Agnes Willoughby was loving me?"
"Even so," said Agnes, somewhat mournfully; "false impressions have worked us so much woe, that it would not be wise to let a little feminine punctilio prevent you seeing things as they are.... Yet it is hardly fair, Hubert, to make me tell you this...."
"Oh, say not so!" he replied; "mistake not the source of this questioning, for, Agnes, be secure
'That Hubert, for the wealth of all the world,
Would not offend thee!'
But can you wonder that, after all I have suffered, my heart and soul thirsts for an assurance of your love? What might well suffice another, Agnes, ought not to suffice me.... I am so much older...."