“If that is all, we may dismiss the objection as frivolous,” said the Duke with a slight smile. “Then I have your consent to make the arrangements? I will go and tell Bride, and send her to you.”
She came within half-an-hour, calm, tranquil, serene as ever, a lovely colour in her face, but no other outward sign of excitement or confusion. Her eyes sought his with one of those glances he had learned to look for and treasure; and when she came to his side she bent and kissed him, which hitherto she had not made a habit of doing.
“Bride,” he said softly, getting possession of her hand, “is this true?”
“Yes, Eustace,” she answered softly; “I do not think we can love each other more than we do; but we can belong to each other more when we have been joined together by God. That is what I want, to be one with you in His sight, so that nothing can part us more.”
He looked earnestly at her, the love in his eyes as eloquent as it was in hers, and scarcely as much under control.
“You are not afraid, my darling? You were afraid of trusting yourself to me once?”
“Yes,” she answered gently; “I had not learned to love you then, and you had not learned love either. You have only learned that slowly, as I have learned it slowly myself.”
“How do you know I have learned it—the love which you mean?”
She looked at him with a smile that brought an answering smile to his face.
“Do you think I have been with you all these weeks, in and out, by day and night, and have not known that? Do you forget how you showed it in those days when you seemed to be slipping away from life, and only the eternal promises of everlasting love and help could reach you to help and strengthen you? You did not talk, but you made us talk to you, and your eyes gave their answer. You found then that it was not a beautiful philosophy, but a living Saviour you wanted; not an abstraction representing an ideal purity, but a Man, the one Incarnate Son of God, to whom you must cling in the darkness of the night. Ah! Eustace, it was then that you truly turned back to the Father’s house; and I know that the Father came out to meet you, and to bring you into His safe shelter. I knew He would—oh! I think I have known that for a long time now; but the joy of the certainty is so wonderful and beautiful——”