“Keeping my fate in balance,” she said in agony, “you're killing me with your falsity.”
“If you go with my proposal,” he said as if to tilt the balance, “everything would turn out fine in the end.”
“What's that?” she inquired in spite of herself.
“With your parents' blessings,” he said taking her hand, “we'll have a civil marriage.”
“What about your parents?”
“We'll keep them out of the loop for a while.”
“But why?” she said removing her hand from his.
“It‟s my idea of our love,” he said regaining her hand, “to save our love. In turn, I'll marry Prema without your parents' getting wiser to it. Slowly but steadily, we can prepare her and all, to the reality of our lives.”
“What an absurd proposal!” she said in remorse.
“I agree it's unusual,” he said disarmingly. “But that suits us admirably.”
“I will be a game,” she said having read his game in the meantime, “if only you make Prema privy to this plan.”
“It's an absurd proposal really.”
“Why! Won't it suit you fine, either way?” she said pinning him down. “If she agrees, you would've us both and should she back out, your father needn't return the money. Wouldn't that remove the hurdle to our marriage? You know it would.”
“Doubt if it works out that way,” he said lacking any conviction in what he said.
“When I'm frank with you,” he sounded arguing for a lost case, “I expect a better understanding than that. How do you expect me to tell my betrothed that I've a pregnant lover? But after marriage it would be all so different. Won't the closeness of marriage call for compromises?”
“Now, I understand your method,” she said in apparent hatred. “Lure women into bed to make them vulnerable, and then force compromises upon them. You want to make her your wife for money and retain me as your keep to pep up your sex life!”
“If I were as mean as you imagine,” he said playing his sincerity card to the hilt, “wouldn't I have married you on the sly?”
“Oh, you're too clever for that,” she said in exasperation. “You're no fool to bite more than you can chew. You know you would come to grief fighting on two fronts. So you've hit upon this strategy of smothering me before tackling her. If you can coerce me now, you
think you can cajole her later. It calls for an evil genius to come up with such a devious plan.”