"With my whole heart and soul!"
"Oh, how blessed to die at this moment!" murmured Bart.
"Would it not be more blessed to live, love?" she whispered.
"And you have always loved me?"
"Always—there—there!" with a touch of her lips at each word.
"I thought—"
"I know you did. You shall never, never think again—there!"
She withdrew from his arms, and adjusted her skirt, and stood by him in her wondrous beauty, radiant with the great happiness that filled her heart.
Barton was still confused, and looked with eyes wide open with amazement, partly at seeing her at all, partly at her marvellous beauty, which to him was seraphic, and more and most of all, at the revelation of her great love.
"Oh Julia! How was this? how is this—this coming of Heaven to me; this marvel of your love?"