"If you are not lovers," I said, "what right have you to marry?" She seemed a little staggered, as indeed she might be by my boldness. "You are very mediaeval," she remarked. "The mediaeval sometimes survives. It is as true now as then that loveless marriages are a curse and a sin," I answered. "It is the one thing which remains now as it was in the beginning." She looked at me furtively, almost timidly. "I should like to know why you are speaking to me like this," she said. "I do not want to seem unkind, but do you think that the length of our acquaintance warrants it?" "I do not know how long I have known you," I answered. "I do not remember the time when I did not know you. You are one of those people to whom I must say the things which come into my mind. I think that if you do not love Colonel Ray you have no right to marry him." She looked me in the face. Her cheeks were flushed with walking, and the wind had blown her hair into becoming confusion. "Mr. Ducaine," she said, "do you consider that Colonel Ray is your friend?" "He has been very good to me," I answered. "There is something between you two. What is it?" "It is not my secret," I told her. "There is a secret, then," she murmured. "I knew it. Is this why you do not wish me to marry him?" "I have not said that I do not wish you to marry him," I reminded her. "Not in words. You had no need to put it into words." "You are very young," I said, "to marry any one for any other reason save the only true one. Some day there might be some one else." She watched the flight of a seagull for a few moments--watched it till its wings shone like burnished silver as it lit upon the sun-gilded sea. "I do not think so," she said, dreamily. "I have never fancied myself caring very much for any one. It is not easy, you know, for some of us." "And for some," I murmured, "it is too easy." She looked at me curiously, but she had no suspicion as to the meaning of my words. "I want you to tell me something," she said, in a few minutes. "Have you any other reason beyond this for objecting to my marriage with Colonel Ray?" "If I have," I answered slowly, "I cannot tell it you. It is his secret, not mine." "You are mysterious!" she remarked. "If I am," I objected, "you must remember that you are asking me strange questions." "Colonel Ray is too honest," she said, thoughtfully, "to keep anything from me which I ought to know."