“Is he?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. It’s not fair. You’ve no right to ask.”
“No right to ask!” he exclaimed in enraged amazement. “No right to ask! My God, that’s a remark for you to make to me!”
He turned his face to the horse, his mouth set, his lips compressing words that he dared not utter. It was evidently all true. The thought that she might be already engaged to Rion entered his mind, carrying with it a sensation of appalling blankness. With a flash of revealing truth he saw that his life, with June completely gone from it, would be for ever savorless and without meaning. He had not realized before how much he cared for her.
For a space there was silence. They sped round another buttress and saw an unobstructed semicircle of road before them. Without looking at her he said abruptly:
“Are you going to marry him?”
“No,” she answered.
“No?” he almost shouted, this time turning to stare at her.
She turned her face away repeating the negative.
“Why not?”