“Oh, no! there will be many more words; you have promised Aunt Sophy to stay to lunch.” “To see you in the midst of the family is almost worse than not seeing you at all. Miss Trevanion, you must know. Perhaps I am doing wrong to take advantage of their confidence, but how can I help it? Everything in the world is summed up to me in this moment. Say something to me! To talk of love in common words seems nothing. I know no words that mean half what I mean. Say you will think of me sometimes when I am away.” Rosalind trembled very much in spite of all she could do to steady herself. They had gone through the hall without speaking, and it was only when they had gained the shelter of the conservatory, in which they were safe from interruption, that he thus burst forth. The interval had been so breathless and exciting that every emotion was intensified. She did not venture to look up at him, feeling as if something might take flame at his eyes. “Mr. Rivers, I could say that very easily, but perhaps it would not mean what you think.” “Yes,” he said, “I see how it is; the words are too small for me, and you would mean just what they say. I want them to mean a great deal more, everything, as mine do. At my age,” he said, with an agitated smile--“for I am too old for you, besides being not good enough in any way--at my age I ought to have the sense to speak calmly, to offer you as much as I can, which is no great things; but I have got out of my own control, Rosalind. Well, yes, let me say that--a man’s love is worth that much, to call the girl whom he loves Rosalind--Rosalind. I could go on saying it, and die so, like Perdita’s prince. All exaggerated nonsense and folly, I know, I know, and yet all true.” She raised her head for a moment and gave him a look in which there was a sort of tender gratitude yet half-reproach, as if entreating him to spare her that outburst of passion, to meet which she was so entirely prepared. “I understand,” he said; “I can see into your sweet mind as if it were open before me, I am so much older than you are. But the love ought to be most on the man’s side. I will take whatever you will give me--a little, a mere alms!--if I cannot get any more. If you say only _that_, that you will think of me sometimes when I am away, and mean only that, and let me come back, if I come back, and see--what perhaps Providence may have done for me in the meantime--” “Mr. Rivers, I will think of you often. Is it possible I could do otherwise after what you say? But when you come back, if you find that I do not--care for you more than now--” “Do you care for me at all now, Rosalind?” “In one way, but not as you want me. I must tell you the truth. I am always glad when you come, I shall be very glad when you come back, but I could not--I could not--” “You could not--marry me, Rosalind?” She drew back a little from his side. She said “No” in a quick, startled tone; then she added “Nor any one,” half under her breath.