“The most dreadful thing you could do,” says he, “would be to marry a man who did not love you.”

“Eh?” says she.

She seems surprised.

“To marry a man, then, with whom you weren’t in love!”

“Oh, that, that’s nothing,” says she grandly.  “I’d do a great deal more than that to get away from my uncle.  But”—­sorrowfully—­ “nobody’s asked me.”

She says it so innocently, so sweetly, that Rylton’s heart grows cold within him.  To ask her!  To tempt this child——­

“But,” says he, looking away from her religiously, “would you marry a man who was not in love with you?"

“Not in love with me?”

“No.  Not actually in love, but who admired—­liked you?”

“But a man who wasn’t in love with me wouldn’t want to marry me,” says Tita.  “At least, that’s what the novels say.”

“He might,” says Rylton deliberately.  He leans forward.  “Will you marry me?"

He almost laughs aloud as he makes his extraordinary proposal.  If it fails, as it certainly must, he will throw up the remnant of his life here and go abroad.  And, at all events, he can so far satisfy his mother as to assure her that he had placed his all at this little heiress’s feet.

“You!  You!” says she.

She stares at him.

“Even me!  You said a moment ago that no man would ask you to marry him for any reason less than love; but I—­I am not in love with you, and yet I ask you to marry me.”

He pauses here, shocked at his own words, his brutal audacity.

“But why?” asks the girl slowly.

She is looking at him, deep inquiry and wonder in her great gray eyes.

“Because I am poor and you are rich,” says he honestly.  “Your money could redeem this old place, and I could give you a title—­a small thing, no doubt.”

“You could take me away from my uncle,” says the girl thoughtfully.  There is silence for awhile, and then—­“I should be able to do as I liked,” says she, as if communing with herself.

“That certainly,” says Rylton, who feels as if all things should be allowed her at this juncture, considering how little it is in his power to allow.

“And you?” She looks up at him. "You could do as you liked, too!”

“Thank you!” says Rylton.

He smiles in spite of himself, but the girl continues very grave.

“You say you have nothing,” says she, “but this house?”

“It is useless arguing about it,” returns Rylton; “this house will go shortly with all the rest.  For myself, I don’t care much really, but my mother—­she would feel it.  That’s why I say you can help us, if you will.”

“I should like to help you!" says Tita, still very slowly.

She lays a stress upon the word “you.”

“Well, will you trust yourself to me?”

“Trust myself!”

“Will you marry me?  Consider how it is.  I lay it all before you.  I am not in love with you, and I have not a penny in the world.  Literally, I have nothing.”