“The honour of a Laurance?  What more sacred pledge could I possibly desire?”

The fingers of her free hand were toying with a small gold chain around her neck, to which was fastened the hidden wedding ring of black agate, with its white skull; and as she spoke her scarlet lips paled perceptibly, and her soft dreamy eyes began to glitter.

“Ah!  I repeat, upon my honour as a gentleman and a Laurance; and a holier oath no man could offer.  Of my proud unsullied name I am fastidiously careful, and can even you demand or hope a nobler one than that I now lay at your feet?”

“The name of Laurance?  Certainly I think it would satisfy even my ambition.”

He felt the pretty hand grow suddenly cold in his grasp, and saw the thin delicate nostril expand slightly, as she fixed her brilliant eyes on his, and smiled.  Then she continued: 

“Is it not too sacred and aristocratic a mantle to fling around an obscure actress, of whose pedigree and antecedent life you know nothing, save that widowhood and penury goaded her to histrionic exhibitions of a beauty, that sometimes threatened to subject her to impertinence and insult?  Put aside the infatuation which not unfrequently attacks men, who like you are rapidly descending the hill of life, approaching the stage of second childlike simplicity, and listen for a moment to the cold dictates of prudence and policy.  Suppose that ere you surrendered your reason to the magnetism of what you are pleased to consider my ‘physical perfection,’ one of your relatives, a brother, or say even your son, had met me at Milan as you did; and madly forgetting his family rank, his aristocratic ties, all the pride and worldly wisdom of heredity, had, while in a fit of complete dementia, offered as you have done to clothe my humble obscurity in the splendid name of Laurance?  Would General Rene Laurance have pardoned him, and received me as his sister, or his daughter?”

“Could I censure any man for surrendering to charms which have so completely vanquished me?  Thank heaven!  I have neither brother nor son to rival me.  My only child Cuthbert is safely anchored in the harbour of wedlock, and having his own family ties, I am free to consult only my heart in the choice of a bride.  I have not journeyed so far down the hill of life as you cruelly persist in asserting, and the fervour of my emotions denies your unkind imputation.  When I proudly show the world the lovely wife of my heart’s choice, you will find my devotion a noble refutation of your unflattering estimate.  But a moment since, you confessed that to exchange the name of Orme for that of Laurance would crown your ambition; my dearest, the truth has escaped you.”

With a sudden gesture of loathing she threw off his hand, struck her palms together, and he started at the expression that seemed literally to blaze in her eyes, so vivid, so withering was the light that rayed out.