"I think I would rather say it. You wish to save me pain, I see; but I am quite prepared for what you are going to say. I did not intend to speak to you on the subject for a long time to come, but yesterday's event has forced my hand. There must be no more misunderstandings between us. You intend to refuse me, I can see. All the same, I wish to tell you that I love you, and to ask you to be my wife." "I am afraid I cannot," said Ruth, almost inaudibly. "No," said Charles, looking straight before him, "I have asked you too soon. You are quite right. I did not expect anything different; I only wished you to know. But, perhaps, some day--" "Don't!" said Ruth, clasping her hands tightly together. "You don't know what you are saying. Nothing can make any difference, because--I am engaged." She dared not look at his face, but she saw his hand clinch. For an age neither spoke. Then he turned his head slowly and looked at her. His face was gray even to the lips. With a strange swift pang at the heart, she saw how her few words had changed it. "To whom?" he said at last, hardly above a whisper. "To Mr. Dare." "Not that man who has come to live at Vandon?" "Yes." Another long silence. "When was it?" "Ten days ago." "Ten days ago," repeated Charles, mechanically, and his face worked. "Ten days ago!" "It is not given out yet," said Ruth, hesitating, "because Mr. Alwynn does not wish it during Lord Polesworth's absence. I never thought of any mistake being caused by not mentioning it. I would not have come here if I had had the least idea that--" "You cannot mean to say that you had never seen that I--what I--felt for you?" "Indeed I never thought of such a thing until two minutes before you said it. I am very sorry I did not, but I imagined--" "Let me hear what you imagined." "I noticed you talked to me a good deal; but I thought you did exactly the same to Lady Grace, and others." "You could not imagine that I talked to others--to any other woman in the world--as I did to you." "I supposed," said Ruth, simply, "that you talked gayly to Lady Grace because it suited her; and more gravely to me, because I am naturally grave. I thought at the time you were rather clever in adapting yourself to different people so easily; and I was glad that I understood your manner better than some of the others." "Better!" said Charles, bitterly. "Better, when you thought that of me! No, you need not say anything. I was in fault, not you. I don't know what right I had to imagine you understood me--you seemed to understand me--to fancy that we had anything in common, that in time--" He broke into a low wretched laugh. "And all the while you were engaged to another man! Good God, what a farce! what a miserable mistake from first to last!" Ruth said nothing. It was indeed a miserable mistake. He rose wearily to his feet.