“A house in Chelsea and a carriage!” Gretna repeated and then suddenly the full impact of what the Marquis was proposing dawned upon her bewildered brain.
“No! No!” she said sharply. “No – of course not!”
She turned away from him as she spoke and stood holding onto a nearby chair as if for support. It could not be true, she thought.
He could not be suggesting such a thing to her. What would her mother have said?
“Is it because we have not known each other very long that this has come as a surprise to you?” the Marquis asked. “Or is perhaps your little head full of romantic notions and you do not think that you are in love?”
He smiled that strange cynical smile of his and then, drawing nearer to her, almost before she was aware of it, put out his hand gently and touched the smooth roun
