Then he was afraid Melville might think he was laughing at him, which was far from the case. He leaned forward.

"I sympathize, Mr. Melville. It is most unpleasant to feel manipulated and as if no one is listening to you or considering your wishes. But then, from those of my friends who are married, I believe it is a not uncommon experience at the time of the ceremony itself. The bridegroom can seem little more than a necessary part of the stage property and not a principal in the act. That will pass, immediately after the day itself is over."

"I am not suffering from nervousness of the day, Sir Oliver," Melville said levelly, although such self-control obviously cost him a great effort of will. "Nor do I feel any pique at being placed at the side of events rather than in the center. I simply cannot"-he seemed to have difficulty forming the words with his lips-"bear… to find myself married to Zillah… Miss Lambert. I have no desire to be married to anyone at all. If at some time I shall have, it will be of my own choosing, and of theirs, not something that has been assumed by others and organized around me. I…" Now at last there was a thread of real panic in him, and his knuckles were white where he gripped the ends of the chair arms. "I feel trapped!"

Rathbone could see that he spoke the truth.

"I assume you have done what you can to escape the contract-"

"There was no contract!" Melville cut across him. "Simply an assumption, which I did not realize soon enough to deny with any dignity or sensitivity. Now it is too late. My refusal, all my arguments, will be seen as a breach of promise." His green-blue eyes were growing wilder, his words more rapid. "They forget what was actually said and remember the facts quite differently from the reality. I cannot stand there and argue 'You said this' and 'I said that'" He jerked one hand up sharply. "It would be absurd and degrading, and achieve nothing but mutual blame and hurt. I assure you, Sir Oliver, Mrs. Lambert is never going to admit she presumed something which was not so and that I gave her daughter no proposal of marriage, literal or implicit. How could she, now that she has announced it to the world?"