"That's it!" cried Marjolaine, remembering all the Admiral had innocently let drop. "You 're a great man; by-and-by you 'll live in marble halls; and you never said a word about it!"
"Hang it all!" cried Jack, protesting with all his might, "I told you my name! I can't go about shouting I 'm a lord's son!"
But Marjolaine had not done. "And you 're going to marry a great lady who owns half a county and goes about doing good. The Hon—Hon—" what a nuisance it was that she could not keep her sobs down!—"the Honourable Caroline Thring!—Oh, does n't it sound horrid!"
"I 'm not going to marry her!" Jack almost shouted. "And she does n't want to marry me; and there 's only one girl in the world for me, and that's you—you—you!"
He tried to draw her down again, but she resisted. Caroline Thring was not the only obstacle. "Jack," she said, with tragic solemnity, "I 'm the one girl in the world you can never marry!"
Her manner was so intense, that even Jack was, for the moment, awed. "You speak as if you meant it!" he said, staring at her in astonishment.
"I do!" Her manner grew more and more solemn. She looked like the Tragic Muse, and I am not sure she did not rather enjoy the impression she was creating. Her voice rang deep and hollow. "We are fated to part."
"Why on earth—?" cried Jack, almost frightened.
"It is a terrible secret," she answered. Then she suddenly sat down beside him. "Sit close! Oh, closer!" Now she was a child again, revelling in a good story. "Listen. Your father loved my mother when they were both very young—"
"No!" cried Jack.