"And strong."
"Yes, and strong, too--thank God."
"And brave."
"Men are brave all the world over."
"I should think there are none braver than you, Mr. Brett," I said.
"It's glorious for a man like me to hear such kind words from a girl like you, though I don't deserve them," he answered. "But I shall try to deserve them. All my life I shall be better for having heard them from your lips. You can hardly guess what it is to me. Perhaps the thing that comes nearest to it, would be if a prisoner for life in some dark pit heard a voice of sympathy speaking to him--actually to him--from a high white star."
"Oh, don't speak of yourself as a prisoner in the dark!" I cried.
"What else am I, when I stop to reflect how hopelessly I must be removed by circumstances from glorious heights--where stars shine."
"But there can be nothing in your circumstances, Mr. Brett," I insisted, eagerly, "which need remove you from any heights. I wonder you--so brave and strong, and an American, too--can say that of yourself. Why, you can reach anything, do anything you really wish, if you just want it enough."
"Do you, an English girl, a daughter of the aristocracy, tell me that?" he asked.