"But I had previously warned you," she said at last, very soberly. "You knew how impossible such a thought was; you were aware of my engagement."
"Yes, and I also knew Le Gaire. All I hoped for was time, sufficient time for you to discover his character. He is no bug-a-boo to me any longer, nor shall any tie between you keep me from speaking. As I have told you I did not come here expecting to meet you--not even knowing this was your home--yet you have been in my mind all through the night, and what has occurred yonder between you and that fellow has set me free. Do you know what I mean to do?"
"No, of course not; only--"
"Only I must believe what you said about me to him; only I must continue to respect an agreement which has been wrung out of you by threat. I refuse to be bound. I know now the one thing I wanted most to know, Billie--that you do not love him. Oh, you can never make me think that again--"
"Stop!" and she was looking straight at me again. "I shall listen to you no longer, Lieutenant Galesworth. I cannot deny the truth of much which you have said, but it is not generous of you to thus take advantage of what was overheard. It was merely a quarrel, and not to be taken seriously. He is coming back, and--and I am going to marry him."
There was a little catch in her voice, yet she finished the sentence bravely enough, flinging the words at me in open defiance.
"When? To-night?"
"Yes, immediately, as soon as Captain Le Gaire can confer with my father."
I smiled, not wholly at ease, yet confident I knew her struggle.
"You might deceive some one else, Miss Billie," I said quietly, "and perhaps if I were not here this programme might indeed be carried out--I believe Le Gaire is cur enough to insist upon it. But I am here, and you are not going to marry him, unless you tell me with your own lips that you love the man."