Wilfrid finished the sentence for her.
“You might not regard me in the same light as now? Is not that what you would say? Well, I am willing to take the risk. But ease your mind, dearest, on that point. I do not think that in your former state you viewed me with indifference. Is not your kiss at the masquerade a proof?”
Though Marie took courage from this last incident, she was still troubled with doubts of another sort.
“I have cast aside all former ties. I want to be yours, and yours only.” She clung to him as if he were her life itself. “But supposing a father or a guardian should appear, forbidding our union?”
“They may forbid: they won’t prevent!”
“Or one saying that I had betrothed myself to him?”
“He must resign you.”
“You will not hand me over to any one who shall claim me?”
“Not even to the Czar himself if he should want you.”