It was madness to ask for my judgment, when the very poetry of my life was an unreasoning and hopeless love for her.
"I cannot!" I muttered.

"You must not ask me." She seemed surprised.

After all, I had guarded my secret well, then?
"You will not refuse to help me," she pleaded.
I set my teeth hard.

I longed for Ray, but there were no signs of him.
"Your father has ordered you to break your engagement with Colonel Ray," I said, "but he has done so under a misapprehension of the facts.

You owe obedience to your father, but you owe more--to--the man whose wife you have promised to be.