"By 'caring,'" said he, "do you mean being 'in love,' as they say, and
all that?"
"Naturally," said Rachel, with great ease and irony, but with a new
misgiving every moment.
"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.
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