Part 14 (2/2)

”Yes--yes, I can--I will,” he answered. ”You must have known it, Liane.

I've been abrupt, I know, and I've startled you, but if you love me you must attribute that to my loving you so long before I have spoken.”

Her troubled breast heaved and fell beneath her rich fur. She gazed at him with parted lips.

”It is a question from me to you,” he went on, ”the question of my life.”

”No, don't think so,” she protested, ”please, don't ask it.”

”Then don't answer it, Liane. Wait--let me wait. Ask yourself--”

”I know my own mind already,” she said slowly, with earnestness; then perceiving, as suddenly as she had all the rest, how considered her a.s.sertion might appear, she went on, still with the quietness of clear-seeing and truth-telling: ”things come clear in an instant. This does, that I could not have thought of. I am already betrothed to another; that is why I cannot accept.”

”You can't expect me to be satisfied with that,” he answered. ”I, who know myself, and who see you as you do not see yourself. It is I who ask: who want to take a great gift. I am not offering myself,” he went on rapidly. ”I am beseeching yourself--of you.”

”I have not myself to give,” she said calmly.

”You mean you love someone else,” he said, with a hardness about the corners of his mouth.

”Yes,” and the long eyelashes swept downward as she answered.

But Zertho paid no attention to her reply. ”During the years I have known you, Liane,” he went on, ”the thought of you has been as a safeguard against my total disbelief in the possibility of woman's fidelity. I knew then that I revered you with my better self all the while--that, young as you were, I believed in you. I believe in you now. Be my wife, and from this instant I will devote all the love in me--and I have more than you think--to you alone.”

”Prince Zertho,” she said, in honest distress, ”I beg you won't go on!

I respect your devotion and your kindness, and I don't want to inflict any hurt upon you; but oh! indeed, you must not ask this.”

”Very well,” he said sadly, rising to his feet. ”Let it all be. I will not despair. You know now that I love you, and ere long I shall ask you again as I have asked. Defer your answer until then.”

”Let us go back,” she urged, s.h.i.+vering as she rose. ”The wind has grown cold;” and in silence they together retraced their steps along the deserted Promenade.

An hour later, when Liane had gone to her room, the Captain, at Zertho's request, walked along to the Villa Chevrier, and found his friend awaiting him in the handsome salon.

When the servant closed the door the Prince was the first to speak.

”To-night I have asked Liane to become my wife,” he said harshly, standing with his hands in his pockets.

”Well?”

”She refuses.”

”As I expected,” answered her father coldly.

”As you wish, you mean,” retorted Zertho.

”I have already explained my views,” the other answered, in a deep strained voice.

”From her att.i.tude it is evident that you have not spoken to her, as we arranged,” said the other angrily.

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