“Then, Tudor, take me, for I am yours, yours entirely—spirit, soul and frame! I say now, as I said once before, there is not, there never was—a pulse in my heart that is not true to you.”
These last words were breathed out upon his bosom, to which he had gathered her.
Presently they sat down, he holding her hand within his own, and gazing with infinite content into her beautiful face.
CHAPTER XXII
LOVE’S OVATION
“You have the victory, my own!” he said at last, with a droll smile. “You have triumphed!”
“How triumphed?” inquired Lilith.
“You have drawn me to your side, you have brought me to retract, and yet you have not told me your secret!”
“No! I have not, indeed; but——”
“Nor has any one else told me, nor do I even surmise its nature; in a word, Lilith, I know no more of that mystery now than I knew on that dreadful day when it parted us! And yet I am here beside you, repudiating all my own injurious doubts and suspicions, taking you in perfect love and perfect trust.”
“Oh, thank Heaven that you can so take me!” exclaimed Lilith, fervently.