He made no sort of reply to this tirade.
“Oh, David Lindsay, I don’t want you to go and leave me, either. I don’t! What should I do without you now? I should cry myself blind! Oh, David Lindsay, how unhappy we are!”
“There is a wall between us, dear. I know not what it is, but I feel it bitterly. It may be the wall of caste or prejudice. I would it were down.”
“Ah, Heaven, so do I! Oh, dear David Lindsay, don’t go and leave me. Stay with me, and let us be just like brother and sister. Say, darling old playmate, won’t you stay and be my brother?” she pleaded, taking his head between her little hands, and laying her face against his forehead.
Now, if he had been a hypocrite, or even a diplomatist, he would have accepted these terms, and trusted to time to win the entire heart of his bride. But he was too honest, open and straightforward, and though his frame shook with emotion, and his voice was well-nigh suffocated, he answered firmly:
“No, Gloria. No, dearest. What you ask is beyond human nature; or, at least, beyond mine.”
She cried hard for a few minutes, and then suddenly clasped his head again as he knelt beside her, dropped her own upon it, and sobbed forth her submission:
“Well, then take me! Take me! I will keep my vow! I will be your wife, David Lindsay!”
And now if his great love had not been utterly without self-love he would have taken her at her word.
But, still shaking with a storm of emotion, still speaking in an almost expiring voice, he answered: