'I want you to have mercy on me because I love you. Don't tell the world if you choose not to. But tell me the truth. I know you're incapable of lying. If I only have it from your own lips I shall believe. I want to be certain, certain.'
'Don't you realise that I would never have asked you to marry me if my conscience hadn't been quite clear?' he said slowly. 'Don't you see that the reasons I have for holding my tongue must be overwhelming, or I wouldn't stand by calmly while my good name was torn from me shred by shred?'
'But I'm going to be your wife, and I love you, and I know you love me.'
'I implore you not to insist, Lucy. Let us remember only that the past is gone and that we love one another. It is impossible for me to tell you anything.'
'Oh, but you must now,' she implored. 'If anything has happened, if any part of the story is true, you must give me a chance of judging for myself.'
'I'm very sorry. I can't.'
'But you'll kill my love for you.'
She sprang to her feet and pressed both hands to her heart.
'The doubt that lurked at the bottom of my soul, now fills me. How can you let me suffer such maddening torture?'
An expression of anguish passed across his calm eyes. He made a gesture of despair.