Now be angry with me if you like, or laugh as you have the right to do, seeing that like Bastin and yourself, I also asked her to marry me, but something makes me speak what I believe to be the truth." "Like Cassandra," I suggested.
"Yes, like Cassandra who was not a popular person." At first I was inclined to resent Bickley's words--who would not have been in the circumstances?
Then of a sudden there rushed in upon my mind the conviction that he spoke the truth.

In this world Yva was not for me or any man.

Moreover she knew it, the knowledge peeped out of every word she spoke in our passionate love scene by the lake.

She was aware, and subconsciously I was aware, that we were plighting our troth, not for time but for eternity.

With time we had little left to do; not for long would she wear the ring I gave her on that holy night.
Even Bastin, whose perceptions normally were not acute, felt that the situation was strained and awkward and broke in with a curious air of forced satisfaction: "It's uncommonly lucky for you, old boy, that you happen to have a clergyman in your party, as I shall be able to marry you in a respectable fashion.