She dropped her eyes to the ground and remained motionless.
He came a step nearer and took her hand in his. She did not resist, nor did she raise her eyes, but he felt that she was trembling from head to foot.
"You are not angry with me?" he questioned, almost in a whisper.
"No, no; I am not angry," she said, almost with a sob. "How could I be? You are a good man, and such love as yours humbles me."
"Then you care for me just a little?" he said eagerly.
"I cannot tell how much I care," she answered, and the tears came into her eyes and filled them to the brim. "But what does it matter? It must all end here and now."
"Why end, Dorothy?"
"Because my father would die before he gave me to you. You do not know him. You do not know how proud he is. Name and lineage are nothing to you, but they are everything to him."
"But he would have married you to Lord Probus, a—a bloated brewer!" He spoke angrily and scornfully.
"But he had been made a peer."