第151章

'I will tell you the truth. "Is it possible," I said to myself, "that such a man as that can want me to be his wife; he an Englishman, of the highest rank and the greatest wealth, and one that any girl in the world would love?"'

'Psha!' he exclaimed.

'That is what I said to myself.' Then she paused, and looking into his face he saw that there was a glimmer of a tear in each eye. 'One that any girl must love when asked for her love;--because he is so sweet, so good, and so pleasant.'

'I know that you are chaffing.'

'Then I went on asking myself questions. And is it possible that I, who by all his friends will be regarded as a nobody, who am an American,--with merely human work-a-day blood in her veins,--that such a one as I should become his wife? Then I told myself that it was not possible. It was not in accordance with the fitness of things. All the dukes in England would rise up against it, and especially that duke whose good will would be imperative.'

'Why should he rise up against it?'

'You know he will. But I will go on with my story of myself. When I had settled that in my mind, I just cried myself to sleep. It had been a dream. I had come across one who in his own self seemed to combine all that I had ever thought of as being lovable in a man--'

'Isabel!'

'And in his outward circumstances soared as much above my thoughts as the heaven is above the earth. And he had whispered to me soft loving, heavenly words. No;--no, you shall not touch me. But you shall listen to me. In my sleep I could be happy again and not see the barriers. But when I woke I made up my mind. "If he comes to me again," I said-"if it should be that he should come to me again, I will tell him that he shall be my heaven on earth,--if,--if--if the ill will of his friends would not make that heaven a hell to both of us." I did not tell you quite all that.'

'You told me nothing but that I was to come back again in three months.'

'I said more than that. I bade you ask your father. Now you have come again. You cannot understand a girl's fears and doubts. How should you? I thought perhaps you would not come. When I saw you whispering to that highly-born well-bred beauty, and remembered what I was myself, I thought that--you would not come.'

'Then you must love me.'

'Love you! Oh, my darling!-No, no, no,' she said, as she retreated from him round the corner of the billiard-table, and stood guarding herself from him with her little hands. 'You ask if I love you. You are entitled to know the truth. From the sole of your foot to the crown of you head I love you as I think a man would wish to be loved by the girl he loves. You have come across my life, and have swallowed me up, and made me all your own. But I will not marry you to be rejected by your people. No; nor shall there be a kiss between us till I know that it will not be so.'

'May I speak to your father?'

'For what good? I have not spoken to father or mother because I have known that it must depend upon your father. Lord Silverbridge, if he will tell me that I shall be his daughter, I will become your wife,--oh with such perfect joy, with such perfect truth! If it can never be so, then let us be torn apart,--with whatever struggle, still at once. In that case I will get myself back to my own country as best I may, and will pray to God that all this may be forgotten.' Then she made her way round to the door, leaving him fixed on the spot in which she had been standing. But as she went she made a little prayer to him. 'Do not delay my fate. It is all in all to me.' And so he was left alone in the billiard-room.