"And have I said I was in love with you?" inquired Mr. Steel, with a
smile as indulgent as his tone. "It might, perhaps, be no more than the
truth; but have I had the insolence to tell you so?"

"It is a greater insult if you are not," returned Rachel, speaking hotly
and quickly, but with lowered eyes.

"What! To offer to marry a person whom one does not--as yet--pretend to
love?"

Rachel vouchsafed no reply.

"Whom one only--but tremendously--admires?"

Rachel felt bound to answer him, for at least there was no insult in
his tone. She raised her candid eyes, a sweet brown blush upon her face.

"Yes," she said, "I think there is absolutely no excuse for a proposal
of marriage, if it is not founded upon love and nothing else!"

"Or its pretence and nothing else," amended Steel, with a bow and a
smile of some severity. "That is a hard saying," he went on, resuming
his chair, and wheeling it even nearer to Rachel's than it had been
before; "moreover," he added, "since I have already insulted you, let me
tell you that it is an exceedingly commonplace saying, into the bargain.
It depends, you must admit, upon the commonplace conception of marriage;
and before we go any further I should like to give you my own
conception, not of the institution, but of the particular marriage which
I have in view."