"Vivien, I love you more than all my life!"
"You—you can't," he could just hear her murmur, her lips scarcely parted.
"More than everything in the world besides!"
What wonderful words they were. "More than everything in the world besides!" "More than all my life!" Could there be such words? Could she have heard—and Harry uttered them? Her hands trembled violently in his; she was sore afraid amidst bewildering joy. Anything she had foreshadowed in her dreams seemed now so faint, so poor, against marvellous reality. Surely the echo of the wonderful words would be in her ears for all her life!
She had none wherewith to answer them; her hands were his already; for the tears in her eyes she could hardly see his face, but she turned her lips up to his in mute consent.
"That makes you mine," said Harry, "and me yours—yours only—for ever."
She released her hands from his, and put her arm under his arm. Still she said nothing, but now she smiled beneath her dim eyes, and pressed his arm.
"Not frightened now?" he asked softly. "You need never be frightened again."
She spoke at last just to say "No" very softly, yet with a wealth of confident happiness.
"The things we'll do, the things we'll see, the times we'll have!" cried Harry gaily. "And to think that it's only a month or two ago that the idea occurred to me!" He teased her. "Occurred to us, Vivien?"