Viola’s heart throbbed strangely as she caught the meaning of her companion’s passionate speech, but to save her life she could not utter a word. She was overpowered by a sudden bashfulness, as if she had provoked the declaration by too eager encouragement. In the gloom of the night she felt her cheeks burn like fire.
Rolfe Maxwell remained silent too for a moment, as if startled at his own presumptuousness, then, seeing she would not speak, continued vehemently:
“Am I too bold? Believe me, I love you ardently, but I should never have dared to tell you so, only—only—to help you, if you so choose, out of the—difficulty—which troubles you so greatly. I am poor, and I have nothing to offer you but a true heart and an untarnished name. But if you will marry me, Viola—may I call you that?—I will toil as never man toiled before to win fame and fortune for my darling.”
He paused, breathless, his splendid eyes shining down upon her with mingled hope and fear, lest she should upbraid him for his boldness.
But still Viola paced slowly by his side along the gloomy street, past the long rows of frowning red-brick houses without a word, and he took heart of grace to continue gravely:
“Do not answer until you look clearly into the future. If you go home now and reconcile yourself to your trouble, it will soon blow over, and you may perhaps soon become reconciled to your lover and be happy. On the other hand, if you marry me, your father will perhaps be offended beyond forgiveness; he will disinherit you, and you will suffer the hardships of a poor man’s wife, without the sweet, wifely tenderness that would make your lot bearable, unless in time you could learn to love me.”
He heard a long, quivering sigh, but no word, and he went on gently:
“I would be very patient, and not try to force your love, dear. I have an offer to go to Cuba to the seat of war as reporter for a leading newspaper here, and I would accept it and go away at once, leaving you here in my humble home with my dear, kind mother and my sweet cousin Mae, an orphan girl who lives with us. I know they would love you for my sake, and while I was away, your heart might grow toward me by the magnetic force of my own passion, till at last we were drawn together by mutual love.”
The eloquent voice paused, and Viola said, low and very faintly:
“How good you are to me.”