Even in the moonlight she saw how white his face had grown, and what a sudden shadow of despair had come into his eyes. He stood silent for some minutes. "You have unmanned me," he said, slowly, "but, Pauline, there is something else for you to hear. You must listen to me for your own sake," he added; and then Aubrey Langton's face flushed, his lips grew dry and hot, his breath came in short quick gasps--he had played a manly part, but now he felt that what he had to say would sound like a threat. He did not know how to begin, and she was looking at him with those dark, calm eyes of hers, with that new light of pity on her face. "Pauline," he said, hoarsely, "Sir Oswald wishes for this marriage. Oh, spare me--love me--be mine, because of the great love I bear you!" "I cannot," she returned; "in my eyes it is a crime to marry without love. What you have to say of Sir Oswald say quickly." "But you will hate me for it," he said. "No, I will not be so unjust as to blame you for Sir Oswald's fault." "He wishes us to marry; he is not only willing, but it would give him more pleasure than anything else on earth; and he says--do not blame me, Pauline--that if you consent he will make you mistress of Darrell Court and all his rich revenues." She laughed--the pity died from her face, the proud, hard expression came back. "He must do that in any case," she said, haughtily. "I am a Darrell; he would not dare to pass me by." "Let me speak frankly to you, Pauline, for your own sake--your own sake, dear, as well as mine. You err--he is not so bound. Although the Darrell property has always descended from father to son, the entail was destroyed fifty years ago, and Sir Oswald is free to leave his property to whom he likes. There is only one imperative condition--whoever takes it must take with it the name of Darrell. Sir Oswald told me that much himself." "But he would not dare to pass me--a Darrell--by, and leave it to a stranger." "Perhaps not; but, honestly, Pauline, he told me that you were eccentric--I know that you are adorable--and that he would not dare to leave Darrell Court to you unless you were married to some one in whom he felt confidence--and that some one, Pauline, is your humble slave here, who adores you. Listen, dear--I have not finished. He said nothing about leaving the Court to a stranger; but he did say that unless we were married he himself should marry." She laughed mockingly. "I do not believe it," she said. "If he had intended to marry, he would have done so years ago. That is merely a threat to frighten me; but I am not to be frightened. No Darrell was ever a coward--I will not be coerced. Even if I liked you, Captain Langton, I would not marry you after that threat." He was growing desperate now. Great drops stood on his brow--his lips were so hot and tremulous that he could hardly move them.