"That you hate me does not count, that is altogether beside the bargain. It is the country you have to consider; you make the sacrifice for your country."
"Enough. I refuse to make such a sacrifice as this," she answered.
"That I love you counts for nothing, I suppose?" said Herrick after a pause.
She did not answer at once. She saw again the man kneeling to her in the hut, and again that night when Felix had broken in upon them. Had he kneeled to her now, she might have relented.
She sank into a chair.
"Less than nothing," she said slowly after a pause.
Herrick's face hardened. In his heart was love, passionate longing, and the madness of desire, but he suppressed all outward sign of the tempest that raged within him.
"I had built much on your friendship, mademoiselle," he said quietly, "I had even dared to hope that my love had touched an answering chord in your heart. I little thought to stand alone in my love for this land of ours."
"Ours!"