ss he were my fiance or my
husband--that I was not to dance with Otto Radowitz--I was not to see so
much of Mr. Sorell. So just to show you that I was really not at your
beck and call--that you could not do exactly what you liked with me--I
danced with Mr. Radowitz last night, and I refused to dance with you.
Oh, yes, I know I was foolish--I daresay I was in a temper too--but how
you can make that any excuse for your attack on that poor boy--how you
can make me responsible, if--"

Her voice failed her. But Falloden saw that he had won some advantage,
and he pushed on.

"I only want to point out that a man is not exactly a stock or a stone
to be played with as you played with me last night. Those things are
dangerous! Can you deny--that you have given me some reason to
hope--since we met again--to hope confidently, that you might change
your mind? Would you have let me arrange those rides for you--unknown to
your friends--would you have met me in the woods, those heavenly
times--would you have danced with me as you did--would you have let me
pay you in public every sort of attention that a man can pay to a girl,
when he wants to marry her, the night of the Marmion ball--if you had
not felt something for me--if you had not meant to give me a little
hope--to keep the thing at least uncertain? No!--if this business does
turn out badly, I shall have remorse enough, God knows--but you can't
escape! If you punish me for it, if I alone am to pay the penalty, it
will be not only Radowitz that has a grievance--not only Radowitz whose
life will have been spoilt!"

She turned to him--hypnotised, subdued, by the note of fierce
accusation--by that self-pity of the egotist--which looked out upon her
from the young man's pale face and tense bearing.

"No"--she said trembling--"no--it is quite true--I have treated you
badly. I have behaved wilfully and foolishly. But that was no
reason--no excuse--"

"What's the good of talking of 'reason'--or excuse'?" Falloden
interrupted violently. "Do you understand that I am in love with
you--and what that means to a man? I tore myself away from Oxford,
because I knew that if I stayed another day within reach of you--after
that first ride--I should lose my class--disappoint my father--and
injure my career. I could think of nothing but you--dream of nothing but
you. And I said to myself that my success--my career--might after all be
your affair as well as mine. And so I went. And I'm not going