"And that, all that is mine!" she said, palpitating.
"All ours," he corrected, and his voice trembled a little, despite himself.
"And half of that won't satisfy you!" she cried.
"Two such halves are better than one," he said, then added hastily, "However, that lies with you. If you say it, it will be a marriage in form only."
"Let me think it over," she said, still under the shock of her surprise.
"Certainly," he answered, rising to depart. "You are perfectly free."
"Thank you."
"But," he added at the door, "be ready for the ceremony, day after to-morrow, at eleven in the morning. Good night. Think over the rest carefully."
Then she comprehended, what at the bottom she had known from the beginning, that, despite all her resources, at the crucial moment he would always be her master, and in the matter of her fortune she would do exactly as he designed.