'I got back my bangle, thanks,' said she, a little irrelevantly, but feeling a necessity for saying something.
'Have you forgotten all that passed between us before and after you allowed me to retain it.'
'I never allowed you to retain it, nor aught of mine, save perhaps a bud from a bouquet. I have not forgotten that you, apparently, sought to do me a great honour, Mr. Holcroft; but I scarcely thought, even then, that you were serious.'
'Serious! Did you not know that I loved you better than my own life.'
'I cannot listen to this kind of thing,' said she, rising with positive hauteur and annoyance in her face and manner; 'you forget yourself.'
'When with you I always do—forgive me!'
'I cannot forgive you for talking to me thus.'
'You used not to dislike me, I know; and now there is no sacrifice I would not make to win your love——'
'Permit me to pass!' exclaimed Olive, but he barred her way, and now a glow of half-tipsy rage seemed to possess him.
'Listen, Olive Raymond,' said he, in a low, concentrated and almost fierce tone; 'I have dared and risked much for you—more than you can conceive. There has seldom been aught that I have sworn to possess that has not in time been mine—mine, do you hear! To those who wait, their time and turn always come. I have sworn to possess you, and woe to the man who comes between us.'