"It is not goodness," he began, but she stopped him with a wave of her hand.
A strange elation seemed to have taken hold of her, and she walked the floor with lifted head and sparkling eye.
"It restores my belief in love," she exclaimed, "and in mankind." And she seemed content just to brood upon that thought.
But he was not; naturally he wished for some assurance from her; so he stepped in her path as she was crossing the room, and, taking her by the hands, said, smilingly:
"Do you know how you can testify your appreciation in a way to make me perfectly happy?"
She shook her head, and tried to draw her hands away.
"By taking a walk, the least walk in the world, beyond that wooden gate."
She shuddered and her hands fell from his.
"You do not know what you ask," said she; then after a moment, "it was that I meant and not the scar, when I spoke of my misfortune. I cannot go outside the garden wall, and I was wrong to listen to your words for a moment, knowing what a barrier this fact raises up between us."
"Hermione,—" he was very serious now, and she gathered up all her strength to meet the questions she knew were coming,—"why cannot you go beyond the garden gate? Cannot you tell me? Or do you hesitate because you are afraid I shall smile at your reasons for this determined seclusion?"