She had risen from the piano while I was speaking, and was standing by the mantel-piece. Her countenance was as pale as death; it was as white and, save for a strange light that shone from her eyes, as expressionless as the face of a corpse. She did not interrupt me by a word or a sign, only stood and looked me straight in the face while I spoke.
I had been sitting for nearly a minute with my face in my hands, stupefied with shame and terror, when these words rang in my astonished ears:
"You have asked me to be your mistress; what guaranty have I that you would have asked me to be your wife if you were free?"
"This guaranty," I cried, "and this atonement for what I have done. I shall leave to-night for London. If I possibly can I shall have the marriage with Miss Grey dissolved. In any case, I shall live in future on my own earnings, and not on her money. I shall start by the first ship for Australia. I shall take one hundred pounds to commence my new life with, and I shall never rest until I have repaid every farthing of the money I now loathe myself for having received in such a manner—innocent as my intentions were at first."
"And it was for love, not for money, that you married Miss Grey," she said, the tears dropping from her eyes as she spoke.
"It was the dream of a boy," I answered; "and when I have gone you will have this guaranty of the purity of my feelings for you—however much I have erred—that having dared to tell you of my love, I have exchanged wealth for poverty and exile, rather than live on the income I have derived from the woman who has made it impossible for me to ask you to be my wife."
"Sit down for a moment," she said, standing with her elbows on the mantel-piece, and her face buried in her hands. I had risen from my seat, but I did as she asked. We neither of us spoke for a minute or two. Then she said, without raising her face from her hands:
"You would have asked me to be your wife if you were not married?"
"Good God! of course I would—you know I would," I cried in wonder.
"And if I could find out a means by which I could legally be your wife, would you take me?"