It is as true now as then that loveless marriages are a curse and a sin," I answered.

"It is the one thing which remains now as it was in the beginning." She looked at me furtively, almost timidly.
"I should like to know why you are speaking to me like this," she said.
"I do not want to seem unkind, but do you think that the length of our acquaintance warrants it ?" "I do not know how long I have known you," I answered.

"I do not remember the time when I did not know you.

You are one of those people to whom I must say the things which come into my mind.

I think that if you do not love Colonel Ray you have no right to marry him." She looked me in the face.