"Hush!" said Esther, raising her hand again; "we are friends now and nothing more."
"Mere friends, are we?" quoted Hazard, with a courageous smile. "No!" he went on quickly. "I love you. I cannot help loving you. There is no friendship about it."
"If you tell me so, I must run away again. I shall leave the room.
Remember! I am terribly serious now."
"If you tell me, honestly and seriously, that you love me no longer and want me to go away, I will leave the room myself," answered Hazard.
"I won't say that unless you force me to it, but I expect you from this time to help me in carrying out what you know is my duty."
"I will promise, on condition that you prove to me first what your duty is."
To come back again to their starting point was not encouraging, and they felt it, but this time Esther was determined to be obeyed even if it cost her a lover as well as a husband. She did not flinch.
"What more proof do you need? I am not fit to be a clergyman's wife. I should be a scandal in the church, and you would have to choose between it and me."
"I know you better," said Hazard calmly. "You will find all your fears vanish if you once boldly face them."
"I have tried," said Esther. "I tried desperately and failed utterly."