“What more can man desire than a name great to the world; a name honored, respected and loved?” Her eyes had dropped, while his were fastened upon her with love intense.
“Love.” He whispered the word lowly and sweetly in her ear as he bent over her drooping form.
Raising her eyes, now full of all that deep love of her aching, patient heart, she met his ardent gaze.
“And can you not have that?” she asked, in tones so low as to be almost inaudible.
“Miss Bennett,” he sadly returned, “mine is a peculiar position. Listen but a moment, and let me tell you my history.”
Junius Cobb then narrated his meeting with Marie Colchis; how he had loved her, but as a child; how he had promised to be her husband, and how he had forsaken her to gratify his ambition. He told her how this love of his little Marie had come to him in all its intensity since his return to life, yet he knew that she was lost to him forever. He informed her of his supposed love for Mollie Craft, and of his sudden discovery that his heart could never be given to her. He related the vision he had wherein Marie had been led to him by an angel. And during all this recital his listener had sat, with tears in her eyes, but a holy feeling of adoration for the man who had remembered her with such love. It was only by a supreme effort that she refrained from declaring herself and falling into the arms of this noble man.
“Miss Bennett—Leona,” gently and slowly; “since my eyes have beheld you, I have seen but one form, have known but one name—Marie Colchis. Yours is the face, the voice, the grace and loveliness that would have been hers at your age. It seems that in your form reposes her soul; that through your eyes beams her sweet and loving nature. Never could two beings be more alike.”
As he spoke the words, Marie’s overflowing heart gave vent to its fullness in a deep sob.
“I know, Leona,” proceeded Cobb, as he noticed her agitation, “that you feel sad at the recital of my story; your great heart—her heart—responds in sympathy to the sufferings of others. I feel that the vision of her coming has been realized; that though departed from this earth and among the angels in heaven, she has sent her soul, her form, her mortal being, back again to earth that I might meet my just reward—life or death. Marie Colchis—for by that name are you henceforth in my heart—I love you, I adore you. Is it to be life or death?”