"Is it Annaik?"
"Annaik ... Annaik?"
"Why are you so surprised, Alan? Annaik is beautiful; she has long loved you, I am certain; and you, too, if I mistake not, care for her?"
"Of course, I do; of course I care for her, Aunt Lois. I love her. But I do not love her as you mean."
The Marquise looked at him steadily.
"I do not quite understand," she said gravely. "I must speak to you about Annaik, later. But now, will you tell me who the woman is?"
"Yes. It is Ynys."
"Ynys! But, Alan, do you not know that she is betrothed to Andrik de Morvan?"
"I know."
"And that such a betrothal is, in Brittany, almost as binding as a marriage?"