"The woman who loves a man and desires to give him his crowning happiness is not a 'miserable wretch,'" he said.
Ah, then he really meant it!
She thought of the days when she had still been innocent enough to wish she was Richard's wife. How long ago was that? She must have sunk low indeed for this most natural relationship between man and woman to appear so strange to her!
She shuddered and felt she was turning pale. What if he had noticed? She could bear anything but that. Shrinking from his searching eyes, she replied timidly:
"I only wanted you to understand that you are free, and can always be free. You can go when you like, at any time, and have nothing to fear."
"And you?" he asked.
"What about me?"
"In what position should I leave you if I went?"
"Oh, that would be my lookout," she exclaimed, laughing.
That was such a remote contingency, why should they worry about it to-day? But he was not satisfied.