"Have I?" she had asked, when he told her that she had ever been the
princess reigning in his castles. And there had been a joy in the question
which she had not attempted to conceal. She had hesitated not at all. She
had not told him that she loved him. But there had been something sweeter
than such protestation in the question she had asked him. "Is it indeed
true," she had said, "that I have been placed there where all my joy and
all my glory lies?" It was not in her to tell a lie to him, even by a
tone. She had intended to say nothing of her love, but he knew that it had
all been told. "Have I?" he repeated the words to himself a dozen times,
and as he did so, he could hear her voice. Certainly there never was a
voice that brought home to the hearer so strong a sense of its own truth!
Why should he not at once make up his mind to marry her? He could do it.
There was no doubt of that. It was possible for him to alter the whole
manner of his life, to give up his clubs, to give up even Parliament, if
the need to do so was there, and to live as a married man on the earnings
of his profession. There was no need why he should regard himself as a
poor man.
Pages:
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206