'Ericson,' he said, 'I am sorry if I have said anything to hurt you. Of course, I might have known that you would act in everything like a man of honour—and a gentleman; but the question now is, What do you propose to do?'
'Oh, papa, what nonsense!' Helena said.
'What do I propose to do, Sir Rupert?' the Dictator asked, quite composedly now. 'I propose to accept the sacrifice that Helena is willing to make. I have never importuned her to make it, I never asked her or even wished her to make it. She does it of her own accord, and I take her love and herself as a gift from Heaven. I do not stop any longer to think of my own unworthiness; I do not stop any longer even to think of the life of danger into which I may be bringing her; she desires to cast in her lot with mine, and may God do as much and more to me if I refuse to accept the life that is given to me!'
'Well, well, well!' Sir Rupert said, perplexed by these exalted people and sentiments, and at the same time a good deal in sympathy with the people and the sentiments. 'But in the meantime what do you propose to do? I presume that you, Ericson, will go out to Gloria at once?'
'At once,' Ericson assented.
'And then, if you can establish yourself there—I mean when you have established yourself there, and are quite secure and all that—you will come back here and marry Helena?'
'Oh, no, papa dear,' Helena said, 'that is not the programme at all.'
'Why not? What is the programme?'
'Well, if my intended husband waited for all that before coming to marry me, he might wait for ever, so far as I am concerned.'
'I don't understand you,' Sir Rupert said almost angrily. His patience was beginning to be worn out.