"You're right," he assented, grimly. "Once I got you, no power on earth

should make me let you go again."

Her lips quivered and her eyes drooped before his. How strange a thing

this love was, that it should change a man so!

"I don't want to force you to answer," he said, after a pause. "Yes, I

do! I'd give half the remainder of my life to hear you say the one

word, 'yes.' But I won't. It's too--too precious. Ah, don't you

understand! I want your love, your love, Ida!"

"Yes, I understand," she murmured. "And--and I would say it if--if I

were sure. But I--yes, I am all confused. It is like a dream. I want to

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think, to ask myself if--if I can do what you want."

She put up her hand to her lips with a slight gesture, as if to keep

them from trembling.

"I want to be alone to think of all--all you have told me."

Her gauntlet slipped from her hand, and he knelt on one knee and picked

it up, and still kneeling, took both her hands in his. It did not occur

to him to remember that the woman who hesitates is won; something in

her girlish innocence, in her exquisitely sweet candour, filled him

with awe.

"Dearest!" he said, in so low a voice that, the note of the curlew

flying above them sounded loud and shrill by contrast. "Dearest!--for

you are that to me!--I will not press you. I will be content to wait.

God knows you are right to hesitate! Your love is too great, too

precious a thing to be given to me without thought. I'm not worthy to

touch you--but I love you! I will wait. You shall think of all I have

said; and, let your answer be what it may, I won't complain!

But--Ida--you mustn't forget that I love you with all my heart and

soul!"

She looked down at his handsome face, the face over which her lips had

hovered only a short time since, and her lips moved.

"You--you are good to me," she said, in a faintly troubled voice. "Yes,

I know, I feel that. Perhaps I ought to say 'no!'"

"Don't!" he said, almost fiercely. "Wait! Let me see you again--you

scarcely know me. Ah, Ida, what can I do, how can I win your love?"

She drew her hands from his with a deep breath.

"I--I will go now," she said. "Will you let me go--alone?"




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