“It is too soon to talk of wedding-days,” I said.

“Not too soon for me,” he answered.  “I can hardly bear to wait.  I would marry you this instant if I could.  Will it be in a month’s time, Bawn?”

“I could never be ready,” I said.

“Not in a month’s time!  And how do you suppose I am going to endure even that!  I shall talk to Lady St. Leger about it.  She will be merciful to me.”

“I could not be ready,” I said.  “Not under two months.  People are not married in such a hurry.  There are so many things to see to.”

It was only now that he began to talk of the wedding that I realized how, somewhere at the back of all the misery and shame, I had had a wild hope that Heaven might intervene and save me from the marriage.  I had not thought he would be in such a hurry, that he would give me no loophole of escape.  I could have cried out for a long day like any poor wretch condemned to the gallows.

“Don’t you see that I am not ready?  I am not used to lovers,” I cried, bursting into a paroxysm of tears, when he went on urging a speedy marriage.

At the sight of my tears he seemed dismayed and tried to comfort me, saying that I should have my own time and that I was the more desirable to him because I was not ready to fall into his arms.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE TRIBUNAL

After that day there was not a day but rich presents were showered on me by the Dawsons, which reminded me of the decking of a victim led to the sacrifice.

What did I care about the jewels and furs and laces that my bridegroom brought me?  About his promise of what he should give me when I was his?

Garret Dawson used to eye me with a grim approval:  and I heard him say to my grandfather once that he could have had rank and wealth and beauty for his son, and that I would bring him nothing; but that he and Rick knew a unique thing when they saw it and were prepared to pay any price for it.  At which speech my poor grandfather bowed with a look as though he felt it hard to endure.

Mrs. Dawson took me in her kind, old, motherly arms when she came to see me, and said humbly that she could never be grateful enough to me for consenting to marry her son; and what she said afterwards had something significant in it if I had not been too miserable to notice it.

“He’ll make you a good husband, dear,” she said.  “He’s a good boy at heart, although he has been a bit wild.  And, listen, dear, you may have your feelings about the way Dawson made his money and I’m not saying you wouldn’t be right.  But, my dear, there’s many a thing Dawson did—­hard and cruel things, you understand, dear—­that Rick never knew of.  The love of money’s not in him any more than it’s in me; and he has done many a kind thing.”

I was able to return the poor soul’s kiss because I liked her, and always shall, and was sorry for her.