“You are unkind to disobey.”
“If you wish me to go, if you will be happier in the knowledge that you will never set eyes on me again——”
“It is not a question of happiness.”
“Of duty?”
She threw back her head and forced a laugh. “It is a matter, as I said last night, of madness or sanity.”
“Then let me be mad.”
“No, no.”
“Let me stay, if only to breathe the same air, to see you, far off, yet to see you, to wake every morning with a hope——”
“No, no!” Ah, her heart was sending warmth into her voice at last.
“You cannot be so cruel, my Princess.” He was pleading now with desperate earnestness. “Let me stay near you.”