He finished taking off his gloves, threw them into his hat, and took a chair exactly opposite her, so that they faced each other as in a waggonette, which to Sybil was an odious vehicle for locomotion. His likeness to Charlie was somehow strangely obliterated to-day; she thought of the latter as of something suffering, in need of protection, whereas the same-featured man who sat opposite her looked particularly capable of self-defence, and, if necessary, of aggression. For the first time she rather feared him, and dislike looked hazily out through the tremor of fear. 'You ran away from America in a great hurry,' he said. 'You left us very desolate.' Something in this quite harmless speech displeased Sybil immensely. 'Ran away?' she asked. 'Yes, ran away; but only incidentally from America. You ran away from me; I came after you.' Sybil got up. 'Really, Mr. Bilton,' she said, 'you have left your manners the other side of the Atlantic.' She went half-way across the room with the intention of ringing the bell, but she stopped before she got there; curiosity about the development of this situation conquered, and she sat down again. He took no notice of her remark about his manners. 'I have come to ask you to marry me,' he said. 'You are the woman I have been looking for all my life. I will try to make you very happy.' She answered him without pause. 'I am very grateful to you,' she said; 'but I cannot.' 'You led me to suppose you would,' said he. 'I am very sorry for it.' There was a moment's silence. 'You changed your mind when you saw me come into Dorothy Emsworth's room,' he said. 'Now, I always meant to tell you about that. It is perfectly true that for nearly two years----' She held up her hand. 'You need not trouble,' she said. 'I know.' Bilton paused a half-second to arrange his reply in the way he wished. 'I always supposed she would tell you,' he said. Her silence admitted it, and he had scored a side-point. He wished to know whether Dorothy had told her. 'I think you are hard on me,' he said; 'or perhaps I do not understand. You were, before you knew that, prepared to accept my devotion. Do you reject it now because I have led that sort of life?' Sybil frowned. 'I can't discuss the question with you,' she said. 'I will just suggest to you this, that you went to see your mistress while I, to whom you had expressed devotion, was staying in the house. If you can't understand my feeling about that, I can't explain it to you.' 'I will promise never to see her again,' said Bilton.