For the moment the words trembled on my lips, but I pressed them back. We stood the while in silence.
"It has been so terrible that I can scarcely dare to hope," she murmured, her voice unsteady.
"Hope! For what, Althea?" I whispered.
She raised her head and our eyes met. All was clear to us both then.
"You may hope, Althea. I am sure."
Instinctively I stretched out my arm, and of herself she came to me and laid her head on my shoulder.
"You know what I have hoped, then?"
"Paul!" Just a sigh of happiness and full content.
"You love me? Ah, Althea!"
I lifted her head from my shoulders and took the sweet face between my hands, and then our lips met in the lingering ecstasy of love's first kiss.