He asked the question with a sharpness that gave me something like a stab. "Yes, of course, Hugh, if I promised you. And yet to bind you by such a promise doesn't seem to me fair." "I'll take care of that," he declared, manfully. "As a matter of fact, when father sees how determined I am, he'll only be too happy to do the handsome thing and come down with the brass." "You think he's bluffing then?" I threw some conviction into my tone as I added, "I don't." "He's not bluffing to his own knowledge; but he is--" "To yours. But isn't it his knowledge that we've got to go by? We must expect the worst, even if we hope for the best." "And what it all comes to is--" "Is that you're facing a very hard time, Hugh, and I don't feel that I can accept the responsibility of encouraging you to do it." "But, good Lord, Alix, you're not encouraging me. It's the other way round. You're a perfect wet blanket; you're an ice-water shower. I'm doing this thing on my own--" "You know, Hugh, I've seen your father since you went away." His face brightened. "Good! And did he show any signs of tacking to the wind?" "Not a bit. He said you would be ruined, and that I should ruin you." "The deuce you will! That's where he's got the wrong number, poor old dad! I hope you told him you would marry me--and let him have it straight." I made no reply to that, going on to tell him all that was said as to bringing J. Howard to his knees. He roared with ironic laughter. "You did have the gall!" "Then you think they'll never, never accept me?" "Not that way; not beforehand." Hot rage rose within me, against him and them and this scorn of my personality. "I think they will." "Not on your life! Dad wouldn't do it, not if I was on my death-bed and needed you to come and raise me up. Milly is the only one; and even she thinks I'm the craziest idiot--" "Very well, then, Hugh," I said, quickly; "I'm afraid we must consider it all--" He gathered me into his arms as he had done before, and once more stopped my protests. Once more, too, I yielded to this masculine argument. "For you and me there's nothing but love," he murmured, with his cheek pressed close against mine. "Oh no, Hugh," I managed to say, when I had struggled free. "There's honor--and perhaps there's pride." It gave some relief to what I conceived of as the humiliation he unconsciously heaped on me to be able to add: "As a matter of fact, pride and honor, in me, are as inseparable as the oxygen and hydrogen that go to make up water."