"Do you not see how very beautiful it is?" I cried, "that there is nothing like it in the whole world? And I am leaving it, and it breaks my heart!"
"You are going away?"
"Yes." I was calm no longer, but strangely agitated. I turned away, and began pacing to and fro.
"Ah! they have not made you happy?" His eyes flashed as he came up to me.
"No," I said, "I am not happy; but it is nobody's fault. They do not like me, and I cannot bear it any more. It has never happened to me before—no one has thought me very wonderful, very clever, very beautiful, very brilliant; but people have always liked me, and if I am not liked I shall die."
With which foolish outbreak—which astonished no one more than the speaker—I turned away again with streaming eyes.
"Let us come in here," said Andrea, still with that strange calm in voice and manner, and together we passed into the Campo Santo.
A bird was singing somewhere among the cypresses; the daffodils rose golden in the grass; the strip of sky between the cloisters was intensely blue.
"Miss Meredith," said Andrea, taking my hand, "will you make me very happy—will you be my wife?"