"Do not decide hastily. You cannot know how much I need you, Madeleine. Your counsels were indispensable to me even in days when I had no secret to confide: now—now"—
"Now you have a secret? Is it indeed so?"
Bertha nodded, paused awhile, then went on abruptly,—
"I have been pestered to death by men who aspired to my hand, and my uncle declares there is no possibility of my finding peace until I make some choice."
"And you intend to secure peace upon his terms? Possibly among those who aspired to your hand there is one who has discovered the entrance to your heart."
"Among those who have aspired,—ah, there is the difficulty! Among those there is none."
"Then you love one who has never aspired?"
"I fear so," answered Bertha, ingenuously, and yet blushing deeply.
Madeleine looked troubled; she had long entertained a pleasant hope which she saw about to vanish.
"And you have loved him,—how long?" she asked, gravely.