‘Madge,’ he said, ‘are you strong enough—are you brave enough—can you put such faith in me? Can you believe that I will lay a life’s unfailing devotion at your feet—that the very fact that there can be no legal tie between us will make me always all the truer to you? I swear to you that if you trust yourself to me, my whole life shall be one act of gratitude for your faith and courage, and that no act or word of mine shall ever cause you to regret the compact.’
Her tears had ceased to fall, and when she next looked at him her face was grave, and looked in the moonlight as pale as snow.
‘If I were alone,’ she answered, ‘you should have my answer now, but I have others to consider.’
‘Oh, who,’ he cried, ‘can come between us?’
‘Let us go home,’ she answered simply and bravely. ‘I must have time to think. Please say no more to me to-night.’ She moved away, and Paul, taking his place beside her, walked in silence ‘There is no one,’ she said, when they had traversed a hundred yards or more, ‘who has a right to dictate what my life shall be; but I have never done anything without my mother’s knowledge and consent, and I never shall.’
Paul had passed from despair almost to certainty, but this chilled him suddenly.
‘Ah,’ he said, with a gasping breath, ‘is there any mother in the world who would consent to such a scheme?’
‘You must write to me,’ she answered, ‘such a letter as I can send to her. I will write, too, and I will ask her not to answer until she has seen us both.’
‘That rings a death-knell,’ said Paul ‘I have no hope of consent in such a case.’
‘I can’t tell,’ she answered simply, ‘but there is no other way.’