"It sounds bloodless? Perhaps it is in one way, but you wouldn't always find me that. Just now, because my hand is forced, I am only anticipating things. If I live, you will some day have to choose between me and Gregory. In this case he must hold his own if he can."
"Against what you have offered me?" She flung the question at him.
He looked at her with his face set and the signs of restraint very plain on it.
"I expect I deserved that. I wanted to make you safe. It's the most pressing difficulty."
The bitterness was still in the girl's eyes.
"So far as I am concerned, you seem to believe it is the only one." Then her anger seemed to carry her away. "Oh," she said, "do you imagine that an offer of the kind you have made me, made as you have made it, would lead anyone to love you?"
Wyllard smiled. "When I first saw your picture, and when I saw you afterwards, I loved your gracious quietness. Now you seem to have got rid of it, I love you better as you are. There is, however, one thing I must ask again, and it's your clear duty to tell me. Are you fonder of Gregory than you feel you ever could be of me?"
Agatha's eyes fell. She felt she could not look at him just then, nor could she answer his question honestly as she almost wished to.
"At least, I am bound to him until he releases me."
"Ah," said Wyllard, "that is what I was most afraid of. All along it hampered me, and in it you have the reason for my bloodlessness. It is another reason why I should go away."