I promised you, and it was dishonourable of me to go away.

I want to remove that sense of dishonour before I die.

No doubt we might get to love each other as warmly as we did in old times ?' She dubiously shook her head.

'I appreciate your motives, Mr.Millborne; but you must consider my position; and you will see that, short of the personal wish to marry, which I don't feel, there is no reason why I should change my state, even though by so doing I should ease your conscience.

My position in this town is a respected one; I have built it up by my own hard labours, and, in short, I don't wish to alter it.