"He evidently saw it to-day." "Well, he was very far from giving in to-day, or even dreaming of granting absolution." "Well, we must make him see it even _more_ clearly," says Roger, desperately. "But how?" dejectedly. "By making violent love to me all day long, and by letting me make it to you. It will wear him out," says Mr. Dare confidently. "He won't be able to stand it. Would--would you much mind trying to make violent love to me?" "Mind it?" says Dulce, enthusiastically, plainly determined to render herself up a willing (very willing) sacrifice upon the altar of the present necessity. "I should _like_ it!" This _naive_ speech brings Roger, _if possible_, a little closer to her. "I think I must have been utterly without intellect in the old days, not to have seen then what a darling you are." "Oh, no," says Dulce, meekly, which might mean that, in her opinion, either _he_ is not without intellect, or she is not a darling. "I was abominable to you then," persists Roger, with the deepest self-abasement. "I wonder you can look with patience at me now. I was a perfect bear to you!" "_Indeed_ you were not," says Dulce, slipping her arm round his neck. "You couldn't have been, because I am sure I loved you even then; and besides," with a little soft, coaxing smile, "I won't listen to you at all if you call my own boy bad names." Rapture; and a prolonged pause. "What _shall_ we do if that wretched beggar won't relent and let me marry you?" says Roger, presently. "Only bear it, I suppose," with profoundest resignation; it is _so_ profound that it strikes Mr. Dare as being philosophical, and displeases him accordingly. "_You_ don't seem to care much," he says, in an offended tone, getting up and standing with his back to the mantelpiece, and his face turned to her, as though determined to keep an eye on her. "I don't care?" reproachfully. "Not to any very great extent, I think; and of course it is not to be wondered at. I'm not much, I allow, and perhaps there are others--" "Now that is not at all a pretty speech," interrupts Dulce, sweetly; "so you sha'n't finish it. Come here directly and give me a little kiss, and don't be cross." This decides everything. He comes here directly, and gives her a little kiss, and isn't a bit cross. "Why shouldn't you defy him and marry me?" says Roger, defiantly. "What right has he to extort such a promise from you? Once we were man and wife he would be powerless." "But there is my word--I swore to him," returns she, earnestly. "I cannot forget that. It was an understanding, a bargain."