"Virginia!" he cried out sharply, and the next instant, at her first movement away from him, his arms were around her and his lips seeking hers.
The world stopped suddenly while a starry eternity enveloped them. All youth was packed into that minute, all the troubled sweetness of desire, all the fugitive ecstasy of fulfilment.
"I—I thought you did not care," she murmured beneath his kisses.
He could not speak—for it was a part of his ironic destiny that he, who was prodigal of light words, should find himself stricken dumb in any crucial instant.
"You know—you know——" he stammered, holding her closer.
"Then it—it is not all a dream?" she asked.
"I adored you from the first minute—you saw that—you knew it. I've wanted you day and night since I first looked at you."
"But you kept away. You avoided me. I couldn't understand."
"It was because I knew I couldn't be with you five minutes without kissing you. And I oughtn't to—it's madness in me—for I'm desperately poor, darling; I've no right to marry you."
A little smile shone on her lips. "As if I cared about that, Oliver."