"
"And you will not tell me how I can show my gratitude?"
"I did not do it for reward," he murmured, scarcely able to
restrain himself.
"I am sure of that," she assented. "But you once hinted, or at any rate
led me to believe, that I could repay you."
There could be no pretence of ignoring her meaning now. Still he felt
that chivalry forbade his acceptance.
"I was wrong," he replied with an effort, "and most unfair if I suggested
a bargain."
"Have you repented the suggestion?" she asked almost quizzingly and with
a curious absence of her characteristic pride.
"Only in a sense," he answered. "I hope I am too honourable to take an
unfair advantage."
She laughed now; joyously, it seemed. "If your scruples are so strong
there will be nothing for it but for me to throw away mine and offer
myself to you."
"Edith," he exclaimed in a flash of rapture, then, checked the passionate
impulse to take her in his arms. "You must not; not now, not now. It is
not fair to yourself. At the moment of your release from this horrible
danger you cannot be master of yourself. You must not mistake gratitude
for love.
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