“If … if you give me your solemn word of honour that what I said—what I implied—was false, that rumour and report have slandered you, that it is all a cruel and baseless calumny…”
She raised her head, looked him full in the face, and without a quiver in her voice:
“I do give it,” she said.
“Then I believe you,” he answered. “With all my heart and soul I believe you…”
“This man is a child,” she thought. “He will believe anything I tell him.”
Soon, however, she has to acknowledge that no matter how childlike he may be, he is never for one moment childish; he gives her proof of his strength, his devotion, his manly purity.
“I wished to meet you face to face, but now that I have met you, you are not the man I thought you were.”
“Nor you,” he said, “the woman I pictured you.”
A light came into her eyes at that, and she looked up and said: