“I-I am sorry if it has – made you angry. Please – forgive me.”
Again there was silence and, as if she could bear it no longer, Yola turned towards him and hid her face against his shoulder.
“Forgive me – forgive me,” she sobbed. “I love you. Please – Leo – please – marry me.”
He did not put his arms round her and she felt frantically that he was unresponsive and that her happiness was slipping away from her and she would lose it completely.
“If you don’t – love me enough to – marry me,” she stammered, “let me be your – mistress, as you – asked me to be.”
Her voice broke on the last words and now she was sobbing tempestuously, feeling she must collapse completely from the agony of the fear that she had lost him and he no longer wanted her.
At last the Marquis put his arms round her a
