His hand was softly stroking her hair. Such tenderness as she had never dreamed of was in his touch. "Leave off crying!" he said. "God knows I want to make things easier for you—not harder."
"I can bear anything," she told him brokenly, "anything in the world—if only I am with you. I can't leave you. You won't—you can't—force me to that."
"Stella! Stella!" he said.
His voice checked her. She knew that she had hurt him. She lifted her face quickly to his.
"Oh, darling, forgive me!" she said. "I know you would not."
He kissed the quivering lips she raised without words, and thereafter there fell a silence between them while the mystery of the night seemed to press closer upon them, and the veiled goddess turned in her sleep and subtly smiled.
Stella uttered a long, long sigh at last. "You are good to bear with me like this," she said rather piteously.
"Better now?" he questioned gently.
She closed her eyes from the grave scrutiny of his. "I am—quite all right, dear," she said. "And I am taking great care of myself. Please—please don't worry about me!"
His hand sought and found hers. "I have been worrying about you for a long time," he said.