“No, no, no!” gasped the girl.
“Why not? as you asked a moment since. All’s fair in love——and war. The country is at war, and we may make true the rest of the adage.”
“No, no!” she repeated.
He was now close by her side and endeavoured to take her hand, but she held it from him.
“You say no because you will not act a lie, and I honour you for your truth. You are robed in truth, my beloved, as an angel is——”
“Oh, cease, cease, I beg of you!”
“Frances, this is the song that bubbles in my heart, and if my lips could worthily fulfil their prompting, I would put it to such words and such music as woman never listened to before. But, lacking eloquence, I can only say, My lady, I love you.”
“And I can only say I am sorry if this be so.”
“If! Why do you say if? Do you not know it to be true?”
“I know it now that you tell it to me.”