“But you – tried?”
“Yes, I tried,” he acknowledged. “I told myself that there was no room in my life for a young unsophisticated girl. I had sworn not to be married. I disliked the idea of being tied down.”
There was a pause.
Then Syringa said very slowly,
‘That night – when you came to my bedroom – you meant to – make love to me.”
“Yes, that is true,” the Earl admitted. “Circumstances had forced you into my life. I was already bewitched by you, but I was still hanging on desperately to what I believed was my freedom,”
Syringa looked down at the table, her fingers playing absent-mindedly with a silver spoon.
“I am very – ignorant about these – things,” she said hardly above a whisper, “but why – did you not – stay with me?”
“Because, my darling,” the Earl replied, “I could not besm
