"Well, all this has been simmering in my mind whilst I fished in Norway," Justin went on, "but through it and above it surged a great flood which has swept me to your feet. Right or wrong as our past has been, I can offer you all my heart's love, Anstice. I want you, not for what you have done, and are still doing for me, but for you yourself. And this, and this alone, has brought me home. I cannot live without you. I don't want to be like a polite stranger. I want to be your best beloved, as you are to me. Can you take me with all my selfishness and make a better man of me? We have been good comrades and friends; I want to be something truer and deeper. Have I taken you by surprise?"
Anstice still looked away over the lake, but she turned her head at last, and her eyes sought his in wistful appeal.
"Are you sure that your heart wants me, Justin?"
"As sure as the sun above us," said Justin fervently, and then he put his arm around her, and drew her close to himself.
"Have I really won you? Tell me with your own lips."
"I have been yours for a long time," said Anstice.
"Then why have you been so cold and cruel to me? Why did you not let me see a little of your heart?"
Anstice shook her head, and smiled into his eyes.
"How could I? A woman cannot take the first step. You impressed upon me in our first meeting that you meant to be nothing to me; that I was to have no hopes of being anything more than a caretaker and housekeeper. Why should I show you my feelings towards you, before you showed me yours?"
"I have been miserable," Justin owned. "I have almost been jealous of my own children when they gathered round you in the evening. I could not stand it any longer. I had to get away. You seemed so aloof and indifferent."