"Still defiant!" he laughed, mockingly. "Why, I thought that a week of Mrs. Crabtree's society would bring you to your senses!"
"Say rather would cause me to lose my senses!" she retorted, bitterly, and there was a moment's silence, which he broke by saying, impatiently:
"I will come to the purpose of my visit, Geraldine, I wish to marry you."
"So you have told me before," disdainfully.
"Well, I tell you so again, and I am fully determined that you shall become my wife!"
"You have a wife already, you villain!"
"She died in New York recently, and I am free to offer you my hand in honorable marriage. Will you accept it, Geraldine?"
"Never! I would die before I would marry you!"
"It is the alternative you must accept unless you become my bride!"