"I thought you liked listening to Dr. Drabble?" she said coldly.
"No; he talks commonplaces. I prefer romance."
"Romance?" echoed Olive, thinking of their relative positions, so far removed as they were from the ideal. "Romance here?"
"And where else will you find it if not in this rose-garden? Tell me, Olive," he went on, without waiting for her reply, "why do you avoid me? Have I offended you?"
"You?" she replied with contempt; "you could not offend any one. I never knew so harmless a being."
"It is better surely to be harmless than harmful?" said Carson, complacently. "I shall make you a good husband."
"You shall never be my husband," retorted Olive, flushed with anger.
Carson looked scared. "I understood we were to be married in a fortnight," he said under his breath.
"So we are! I marry you not because I love you, but because I respect the wish of my father. I can be a wife to you in name only."
"What I say. Cannot you comprehend plain English? When we are married, you and I can be no more to one another than we are at this moment."
"And if I refuse?" he said, with a faint show of anger.
"Then I cannot marry you," answered Olive quietly. "My desire is to carry out to the letter the will of my father; and, by becoming your wife, give you the control of this fifty thousand pounds. More than this I cannot do. I pay you this money for my freedom. You are free to accept it or refuse it as you will."
Angus looked mortified and indignant. A flush was across his weak but handsome face. "Do you then hate me?" he demanded angrily.
"I am indifferent to you. I do not love you; for that reason I make my bargain."
"I understand. You love that insolent Mallow?"
"I should advise you to make no assertions and to mention no names," replied Olive, keeping her temper. "What I say I intend to do. You marry me on these terms or not at all."
"I will marry you," said Carson, frowning, "if only to humble you."
Olive turned on him. "You--you humble me? You, a foolish weak----Go away, Angus, or I may say much we may both regret."
"I will not go away," he said, the latent obstinacy of his nature asserting itself. "Let us make our bargain once and for all. I will marry you----"
"Yes," he whispered, with so strange a glance that she started back, "in name only. I agree to your terms--for my own private reasons. But, should this Mallow return----"