She is a child, and she does not know--I can make her listen.

She shall have you, Burr.

I will go this minute, and talk to her, and do you come after me." Madelon gave a forward bound, like a deer, but Burr sprang up and caught her by the arm.

"Why do you stop me, Burr Gordon ?" she cried, trying to wrest her arm away.
"Do you think I have no manhood left, Madelon Hautville, that I will let you, _you_ beg a woman who does not love me to marry me ?" "She does love you, she shall love you!" "I tell you she does not!" Burr spoke with a bitterness which might well have come from slighted love, and, indeed, so complex and contradictory are the workings of the mind of a man, and so strong is the bent when once set in one direction, that not loving Dorothy Fair, and loving this other woman with his whole heart, he yet felt for the moment that he would rather his marriage had taken place and he were not free.

His freedom, which he knew was a shame to welcome, galled him for the time worse than a chain, and he felt more injured than if he had loved this girl who had jilted him; for something which was more precious to him than love had been slighted and made for naught.
"She does--you are mad, Burr Gordon! She was all ready to marry you.
She came to me to help on her wedding-clothes.