"You needn't be afraid of that," he said quietly. "Now tell me,
Dinah, for I want to know; how long have you known that you didn't want
to marry him?"
But Dinah shrank at the question, as though he had probed a wound.
"Oh, I can't tell you that! As long as I have realized that I was bound
to him--I have been afraid! And now--now that it has come so close--" She
broke off. "Oh, but I can't draw back now," she said hopelessly.
"Think--only think--what it will mean!"
Scott was silent for a few seconds, then: "If it would be easier for you
to go on," he said slowly, "perhaps--in the end--it may be better for
you; because he honestly loves you, and I think his love may make a
difference--in the end. Possibly you are nearer to loving him even now
than you imagine. If it is the dread of hurting him--not angering
him--that holds you back, then I do not think you would be doing wrong to
marry him. If you are just scared by the thought of to-morrow and
possibly the day after--"
"Oh, but it isn't that! It isn't that!" Dinah cried the words out
passionately like a prisoner who sees the door of his cell closing
finally upon him. "It's because I'm not his! I don't belong to
him! I don't want to belong to him! The very thought makes me
feel--almost--sick!"
"Then there is someone else," Scott said, with grave conviction.
"Ah!" It was not so much a word as the sharp intake of breath that
follows the last and keenest thrust of the probe that has reached the
object of its search.
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