"
"Think!" he begged her. "It would be so easy. We could walk out of this
place together, and in an hour's time you would have some one else to
take your little troubles on their shoulders. Don't you think that mine
are broad enough, little girt?"
"Please don't!" she begged. "I cannot. I wish you would not ask me."
"I don't know whether it makes any difference," he said, after a
moment's hesitation, "but I have plenty of money. In fact I am very
rich. If there is any possible way in which money could help your
troubles, they would soon be over."
"Oh! I know that you have," she answered. "It is not that."
He looked at her fixedly.
"You know that I have? Perhaps you know who I am?"
"I do," she answered. "You are Guy Mildmay, Duke of Mowbray."
He was taken aback.
"How did you find that out?" he asked.
"On the steamer," she answered, "the last few days. People got to know,
I am not sure how, and in any case it does not matter."
A light began to break in upon him.
"I believe," he said, "that it is because you know you will not marry
me."
"Oh! it isn't only that," she answered. "It is utterly, absolutely
impossible.
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