“Yes, it strikes you as funny, doesn’t it?” she said. “Well, it is.”
“So it is,” he answered. “I quite agree. Now look here, Hermia. Supposing it were not a case of love in a prospector’s camp, but love in all the wide world—in any part of it that pleased you—no matter where—the brightest parts of it, where everything combined to make life all sunshine for you, while you made life all sunshine for me? What then?”
“Now you’re getting beyond me, Justin. Suppose you explain.”
“Yes. That’s all right. I will. No more prospecting for me, no need for that or anything else—only to enjoy life—with you. Look at this.”
He put into her hand the communication he had received in camp—the sight of which had caused him that great and sudden agitation, and which had moved his comrade so anxiously to utter a hope that it contained no bad news. Bad news! The news that it imparted was not exactly that he was a millionaire, but that all unexpectedly he had succeeded to a goodly heritage, just stopping short of five figures as a yearly income.
“Now, have we got to part sooner or later?” he cried triumphantly, watching the astonishment and then gladness which overspread her face. “Look, we have all the world before us, and need care for nobody. Come with me, Hermia my darling, my one love. Leave all this and come with me, and see what love really means.”
She did not immediately answer. She was looking him through with her large eyes, and was thinking. She looked back upon her life, and it seemed all behind her. Here was an opportunity of renewing it. Should she take him at his word, or should she play him a little longer? No, that was not advisable under the circumstances. It was now or never. It was strike while the iron is hot—and it was hot enough now in all conscience, she thought, as she looked at his pleading earnest face.
“Justin, my love, I believe I will take you at your word. Only it must be immediately or not at all. Shall I ever regret it, I wonder?” And again she looked him through with a fine expression of great and troubled seriousness.
“Never, darling,” he cried enraptured. “That old fossil doesn’t appreciate you. I will show you what appreciation means. You will go with me at once—to-morrow—never to part?”
“Yes,” she whispered.