'Ah, but people have mistaken ideas of duty, often! I want you now, this minute, to give up something I believe you think your duty.'
'What is that?' she asked, drawing away from him.
'I cannot bear to have the woman I love standing up in public to speak before a crowd of vulgar strangers,' he cried, almost fiercely. 'If you love me, Silvia, give this up for me!'
'You mean on future occasions, after we are—are'——
'No; I mean now, to-morrow: give up this meeting for me, to-morrow!'
'Impossible! I cannot. They are reckoning upon me, and I have promised'——
'You could easily excuse yourself.'
'I will make no false excuses,' cried Silvia with warmth. 'I admit my love for you—but I will never bind myself to what you may choose to demand. If we married, you might trust me to consider your wishes before my own, before everything but conscience; but I will not give way to this exaction—now. I cannot break my promise, and do what I feel to be wrong and cowardly; no, not to be the happiest woman upon earth! And do you think a marriage begun like that would be a happy one? No, no; better be sorry now than then.'
He got up and stood apart from her, gloomily. 'Then you will not? A woman like you is too advanced for the dear old traditions of love!'
'I will never marry a man who is ashamed of what his wife has done,' answered Silvia very low, but calmly.