"I loved Colonel Arran enough to endure it--endure your touch--which shames--defiles--which--which outrages every instinct in me!" Breathless, scornful, she drew back, still facing him.
"The part you have played in my life!" she said bitterly--"think it over.

Remember what you have been toward me from the first--a living insult! And when you remember--all--remember that in spite of _all_ I--I loved you--stood before you in the rags of my pride--all that you had left me to clothe myself!--stood upright, unashamed, and acknowledged that I loved you!" She made a hopeless gesture.
"Oh, you had all there was of my heart! I gave it; I laid it beside my pride, under your feet.

God knows what madness was upon me--and you had flung my innocence into my face! And you had held me in your embrace, and looked me in the eyes, and said you would not marry me.

And I still loved you!" Her hands flew to her breast, higher, clasped against the full, white throat.
"Now, have I not dragged my very soul naked under your eyes?
Have I not confessed enough.

What more do you want of me before you consent to keep your distance and trouble me no more ?" "I want to know what has angered you against me," he said quietly.
She set her teeth and stared at him, with beautiful resolute eyes.
"Before I answer that," she said, "I demand to know why you refused to marry me." "I cannot tell you, Ailsa." In a white rage she whispered: "No, you dare not tell me!--you coward! I had to learn the degrading reason from others!" He grew deathly white, caught her arms in a grasp of steel, held her twisting wrists imprisoned.
"Do you know what you are saying ?" he stammered.
"Yes, I know! Your cruelty--your shame----" "Be silent!" he said between his teeth.