This brought the colour flaming to her cheeks.
"I am perfectly well. I am always well!"
He bent forward, took both her cold hands, and drew her to her feet. For an instant he chafed her hands almost unconsciously. Then they walked on a little, Caroline as in a dream.
Suddenly he paused, and catching her hands again more closely, faced her. There were tears in her eyes just ready to run down her cheeks.
"If you are well, why are you crying?" he asked abruptly. Then tenderly, "Come, Caroline, be honest with me. Something is wrong, and I must know what that something is. Don't you realize that I would give my life itself to be sure that you were happy? Have you the least idea what you are to me—how much I love you?"
She shook her head; and then she looked up, and her lips smiled for an instant.
"How should I know these things? You have never told them to me."
"Surely yes," he said.
"Surely no," she answered. "That day you spoke to me just after you came back from America, you simply dictated to me the fact that you found you required a wife, and that you considered me a suitable person for the situation; and your letter at Christmas was just the same thing."
"I knew I had done some clumsy thing," he said remorsefully. "But dearest, sweetest heart, you must have known that I love you!"