He darted a lightning glance at Wally as he said the words; they touched her to the quick. She had to stand still and lean her forehead against the trunk of a tree, the blood throbbed so in her temples.
"And if it is so, if they do say such things behind my back--" she gasped, but she could not finish; a sudden mist seemed to cloud and confuse all her thoughts.
Vincenz gave her time to recover herself; he knew what it must be to her, for he knew her pride. After a time he said,
"Look here, it seems to me thou'd best come with me to the dance; that were the best way to stop peoples' mouths."
Wally drew herself up. "I go with no lad to the dance that I don't mean to marry--that I tell thee once for all!" she said.
"If I was thee, I'd sooner marry Vincenz Gellner than die an old maid for love of Hagenbach," said Vincenz sneeringly.
Wally looked at him with newly-awakened aversion. "I wonder thou'rt not tired of that," she said; "when thou knows well it's all of no good."
"Wally, I ask thee for the last time, can thou not bring thyself to think of me as a husband?"
"Never--never! sooner will I die," she said.
Vincenz' sharp and prominent cheek bones became white spots on his yellow face; he looked almost like the vulture, glancing sideways at Wally, as at some defenceless prey. "I'm sorry, Wally," he said, "but I've somewhat to say to thee--something that I'd fain have spared thee, but thou forces me to it. I've given thee a twelvemonth, and now I must speak." He drew a written sheet of paper from his pocket. "It's nigh upon a year since thy father died, and if thou doesn't marry me at the year's end thy right to the farm is over."