"I asked not your escort, Mr. Richard Lanyan."
"Ah, but I choose to give it," said the young man, in a determined tone, and then added: "Mistress Alice, why will you not listen to reason? You know that you are friendless and poor and I would help you,—yes, lay down my life for you. I——"
"I do not require your aid. Why do you push your attentions upon me when you know they are unwelcome, and especially at this sad time?"
"Ah, but Mistress Alice, my love for you——"
She gave an impatient gesture.
"Have I not often said that it is vain and useless. I do not wish it, and your father——"
"Does not wish it, either," interjected Lanyan with an unpleasant scowl, "but that matters not; I wish it."
"But I do not, and I must not encourage you. I cannot give you what I have bestowed upon another." Her face flushed and then resumed its pallid expression.
Mr. Richard Lanyan was silent, but his facial muscles twitched with emotion, and his dark eyes gleamed with hidden fire.
"I say that no one shall take you from me. My father nor no one else shall stand as a bar in the way."