'That you were about to be married—that is the long and the short of it.'
His face crimsoned with annoyance as he spoke; but hers grew pale.
'And you, Vivian—you believed this?' she asked mournfully and reproachfully.
'Much that I saw seemed to confirm it. You and he were so much together.'
'How unfortunate I am to have been suspected by you twice! Ronald is only my cousin.'
'So was that precious Shafto!'
'Why hark back upon that episode?' she asked, piteously. 'Have I offended you? Misunderstanding between us seems to have become our normal state.'
'Your cousin may—nay, I doubt not, loves you, Finella; but why do you permit him to do so?'
'Can I help it? Ronald was a kind of brother to me—nothing more,' she continued, ignoring—perhaps at that moment forgetting—his recent proposal; 'but my heart has never for a moment wandered from you. See!' she added, while quickly and nervously stripping the kid glove from her right hand, 'your engagement ring has never, for a second even, been off my finger since first you placed it there.'
'My darling—my darling!' he exclaimed, as all his heart went forth towards her. 'Oh, Finella! what I suffered when I thought I had again lost you! Yet I would almost undergo it all again—for this!' he added, as he passionately kissed her, after a swift glance round to see that no one was nigh.