“I always knew it,” she whispered. “I knew you loved me. That you cared almost as much as I cared. But you never even suspected. And,—oh, how could I tell you?”
Again they were silent for a space. Then she said, a little timidly:
“God meant us for each other, dear love. I believe in such things. And so must you. And we have found each other at last. Here, alone, on the top of the world. Just as He meant us to. Oh, I must be good—so good—if I am to deserve all this.”
“Deserve it?” he echoed in choked amaze. “Girl, you make me feel like hidin’ my head somewheres. What is there in all this for you? I’m a rough, uneddicated chap that most folks look down on, an’ the rest don’t look at, at all. I got nothin’ but my money an’—Oh, Dey, I got you! An’ I’m the happiest man that ever got lost in this measly, heavenly wilderness. It ain’t true. An’ presently I’ll wake up. But while it lasts—”
“It will last forever, darling,” she interposed. “Forever and a day. We couldn’t be brought together like this, just to be parted again. Even Fate couldn’t be as cruel as that. Tell me why you didn’t know you loved me. Sometimes, when you used to talk about marrying—someone else,—I had to bite my lips to keep from calling to you—‘You can’t! It’s I you love!’”
“Why didn’t you, then? You saw me stumblin’ along in the dark. Why did you let me do it, when if you’d said the first word—?”
“I should have said it some day. I know I should. Some day before it was too late. Oh, beloved, did you really think I was going to let you marry—her? Why even she knew better.”
Conover threw back his head and laughed long and loud. A laugh of absolute boyish happiness that rang out over the miles of fog like a challenge to Fate.
“Oh, Lord!” he gurgled. “Gener’lly it gets me wild to be made a fool of. But this is the dandiest joke ever. The whole crowd was on, you say? Ev’rybody but me!”
He grew grave and drew her to him once more. Not impetuously now, but with a gentle reverence.