“What? Say it again!”
“I have never—never in my life till now.”
“Oh, you do look so honest when you say that! It must be true—surely you couldn’t look that way, you wouldn’t look that way if it were not true—would you?”
“I couldn’t and wouldn’t. It is true. Oh, let us end this suffering—take me back into your heart and confidence—”
“Wait—one more thing. Tell me you told that falsehood out of mere vanity and are sorry for it; that you’re not expecting to ever wear the coronet of an earl—”
“Truly I am cured—cured this very day—I am not expecting it!”
“O, now you are mine! I’ve got you back in the beauty and glory of your unsmirched poverty and your honorable obscurity, and nobody shall ever take you from me again but the grave! And if—”
“De earl of Rossmore, fum Englan’!”
“My father!” The young man released the girl and hung his head.