Have I then no power to persuade you?
You will not indeed refuse ?' He looked at her almost in despair.

He had not anticipated more than the natural hesitancy which he would at once overcome by force of passion.
There was something terrible to him in the disclosure of a quiet force of will equal to his own.

Frustration of desire joined with irritated instincts of ascendency to agitate him almost beyond endurance.
Emily gazed at him with pleading as passionate as his own need.
'Do you distrust me ?' he asked suddenly, overcome with an intolerable suspicion.

At the same moment he dropped her hand, and his gaze grew cold.
'Distrust you ?' She could not think that she understood him.
'Do you fear to come to London with me ?' 'Wilfrid ?' Her bosom heaved with passionate resentment of his thought.
'Is _that_ how you understand my motives ?' she asked, with tremulous, subdued earnestness, fixing upon him a gaze which he could not meet.
'Yes,' he answered, below his breath, 'in a moment when love of you has made me mad.' He turned away, leaning with one hand upon the trunk.

In the silence which followed he appeared to be examining the shapeless ruins, which, from this point of view, stood out boldly against the sky.
'When was this castle destroyed ?' he asked presently, in a steady voice.
He received no answer, and turned his eyes to her again.