"As to that I have, of course, to own that I have behaved foolishly;--worse than foolishly, if you choose to say so. You cannot condemn me more absolutely than I condemn myself. But I have made up my mind as to one thing. I will not marry where I do not love." Oh, if Lily could have heard him as he then spoke! "It would be impossible for me to speak in terms too high of Miss Dale; but I am quite sure that I could not make her happy as her husband." "Why did you not think of that before you asked her?" said Alexandrina. But there was very little of condemnation in her tone. "I ought to have done so; but it is hardly for you to blame me with severity. Had you, when we were last together in London--had you been less--" "Less what?" "Less defiant," said Crosbie, "all this might perhaps have been avoided." Lady Alexandrina could not remember that she had been defiant; but, however, she let that pass. "Oh, yes; of course it was my fault." "I went down there to Allington with my heart ill at ease, and now I have fallen into this trouble. I tell you all as it has happened. It is impossible that I should marry Miss Dale. It would be wicked in me to do so, seeing that my heart belongs altogether to another. I have told you who is that other; and now may I hope for an answer?" "An answer to what?" "Alexandrina, will you be my wife?" If it had been her object to bring him to a point-blank declaration and proposition of marriage, she had certainly achieved her object now. And she had that trust in her own power of management and in her mother's, that she did not fear that in accepting him she would incur the risk of being served as he was serving Lily Dale. She knew her own position and his too well for that. If she accepted him she would in due course of time become his wife,--let Miss Dale and all her friends say what they might to the contrary. As to that head she had no fear. But nevertheless she did not accept him at once. Though she wished for the prize, her woman's nature hindered her from taking it when it was offered to her. "How long is it, Mr. Crosbie," she said, "since you put the same question to Miss Dale?" "I have told you everything, Alexandrina,--as I promised that I would do. If you intend to punish me for doing so--" "And I might ask another question. How long will it be before you put the same question to some other girl?" He turned round as though to walk away from her in anger; but when he had gone half the distance to the door he returned. "By heaven!" he said, and he spoke somewhat roughly, too, "I'll have an answer. You at any rate have nothing with which to reproach me. All that I have done wrong, I have done through you, or on your behalf. You have heard my proposal. Do you intend to accept it?" "I declare you startle me. If you demanded my money or my life, you could not be more imperious." "Certainly not more resolute in my determination." "And if I decline the honour?"