"I will never let you go till you have answered me."
"How can I answer you if I don't know what you mean?" retorted Geraldine, half laughing.
"Do not jest. Tell me, yes or no, are you going to marry that cursed fool?"
"What 'cursed fool'? Your language is not elegant, Colonel Fairlie!" said Geraldine, with demure mischief.
"Belle! Would you have met him? Did you intend to elope with him?"
Geraldine's eyes, always large enough, grew larger and a darker blue still, in extremest astonishment.
"Belle!—elope with him? What are you dreaming? Are you mad?"
"Almost," said Fairlie, recklessly. "Have you misled him, then—tricked him? Do you care nothing for him? Answer me, for Heaven's sake, Geraldine!"
"I know nothing of what you are talking!" said Geraldine, with her surprised eyes wide open still. "Oblige me by leaving my pony's head. I shall be too late home."
"You never answered his advertisement, then?"