He walked on in silence, then regarded her.

’Such words in such a voice would make any man strong.  Yet I would ask more from you.  There is one thing I need to feel full confidence in myself, and that is a woman’s love.  I have known for a long time whose love it was that I must try to win.  Can you give me what I ask?’

The smile which touched his lips so seldom was on them now.  He showed no agitation, but the light of his eyes was very vivid as they read her expression.  Annabel had stayed her steps; for a moment she looked troubled.  His words were not unanticipated, but the answer with which she was prepared was more difficult to utter than she had thought it would be.  It was the first time that a man had spoken to her thus, and though in theory such a situation had always seemed to her very simple, she could not now preserve her calm as she wished.  She felt the warmth of her blood, and could not at once command her wonted voice.  But when at length she succeeded in meeting his look steadily her thought grew clear again.

‘I cannot give you that, Mr. Egremont.’

As his eyes fell, she hastened to add: 

’I think of you often.  I feel glad to know you, and to share in your interest.  But this is no more than the friendship which many people have for you—­quite different from the feeling which you say would aid you.  I have never known that.’

He was gazing across the lake.  The melancholy always lurking in the thoughtfulness of his face had become predominant.  Yet he turned to her with the smile once more.

’Those last words must be my hope.  To have your friendship is much.  Perhaps some day I may win more.’

‘I think,’ she said, with a sincerity which proved how far she was from emotion, ’that you will meet another woman whose sympathy will be far more to you than mine.’

’Then I must have slight knowledge of myself.  I have known you for seven years, and, though you were a child when we first spoke to each other, I foresaw then what I tell you now.  Every woman that I meet I compare with you; and if I imagine the ideal woman she has your face and your mind.  I should have spoken when I was here last autumn, but I felt that I had no right to ask you to share my life as long as it remained so valueless.  You see’—­he smiled—­’how I have grown in my own esteem.  I suppose that is always the first effect of a purpose strongly conceived.  Or should it be just the opposite, and have I only given you a proof that I snatch at rewards before doing the least thing to merit them?’

Something in these last sentences jarred upon her, and gave her courage to speak a thought which had often come to her in connection with Egremont.

’I think that a woman does not reason in that way if her deepest feelings are pledged.  If I were able to go with you and share your life I shouldn’t think I was rewarding you, but that you were offering me a great happiness.  It is my loss that I can only watch you from a distance.’