[pg 021] Lady Monica dropped her head and did not answer, but the little hands were pressed tightly together.
“I've always been proud of my name,” I said, “though it's counted a misfortune to bear it; but when I saw you, then I knew for the first time how great a misfortune it may be.”
“Why?”
“Because my only happiness can come now in having you for my wife; and even if I could win your love, you wouldn't be allowed to marry my father's son.”
“Your father may have been mistaken,” the girl faltered. “I do think he was. But he was a gloriously brave man. Even the enemies against whom he fought must respect his memory. I—I've read of him. I—bought a book yesterday. You see—I've thought about you. I couldn't help it. We saw each other only those few minutes, and we didn't even speak; yet somehow it was different from anything else that ever happened to me.”
“It was fate,” I said. “We were destined to meet, and I was destined to love you. If I thought I could make you care, that would give me a right I couldn't have otherwise; the right to try and win your love, and beat down every obstacle.”
“I could—I do care,” she whispered. “Even if I were never to see you again, I shouldn't forget. This—would be the romance of my life.”
“Angel!” I said. And then she took off her mask, with such a divine smile that I could have knelt at her feet as at the shrine of a saint.
“Isn't it wonderful?” she asked. “I didn't find out your name till yesterday, though I tried before; and we don't know each other at all—”
“Why, we've known each other since the world began. My soul had been waiting to find yours again, and found it the other afternoon, on the road to my own land. That's what people who don't understand call ‘love at first sight.’ ”