I do not love you, Oscar, and I will not marry you." There was a darker shade upon his face now.

Unconsciously he had drawn a little nearer to her.
"Listen," he begged; "it is perhaps possible that I have not been mistaken--that a certain change has crept up in you even within the last few days?
Tell me, is there any one else who has found his way into your heart?
No, I will not say heart! It could not be your heart in so short a time.

Into your fancy?
Is there any one else, Naida, of whom you are thinking ?" "That is my concern, Oscar, and mine only," she answered haughtily.
A weaker woman he would have bullied.

His veins were filled with anger.
His tongue ached to spend itself.

Naida's bearing cowed him.