"I am not a rich man, darling, but I have enough for us both—and I can't bear to think of you dressed in the clothes that—"
"I shall wear nothing in future but what you give me," she answered gravely.
There was a pause, then Ragna said, harking back to the moment on the steps below the church,
"This afternoon has been like a foretaste of Heaven. It has been the most perfect happiness I have ever known."
Angelescu slipped his arm behind her, and drew her close to him; her head sank to his shoulder.
"Ah, darling," he answered, "and to think that we have waited so long for it—that so much has happened that was unnecessary."
"No," she returned slowly, the words falling from her lips as the thoughts took definite shape in her mind, "it is best as it is. I am sincere at this moment, when I say to you that I regret nothing—nothing. If I had not learned what it is to suffer, I should not know how to love you as I do. I see now that it has all been a preparation—for this. If I had gone to you then, I,—we—I think we might not have been so happy. I was too ignorant, I was too hurt and suspicious to appreciate—And I had no real understanding of love. First I had thought it was romance, sentiment,—then I thought I knew it to be passion,—afterwards I thought it must be affection, friendship, esteem. Now I know."
"What is it then?" he asked.
"I don't know that I can explain in words, it is all I have said and more too, it is the feeling I have for you; it is all myself, the essence of my soul, the best that is in me."
There was a short silence, and she continued,