'Never? What do you mean?' she asked quickly. 'Why not?'
'You may forgive me,' he answered earnestly. 'You know that I would have let him shoot me ten times over rather than have hurt you—'
'Orsino—' She touched his arm nervously, trying to stop him.
'Yes—I wish I were in his grave to-day! You may forgive, but you cannot forget—how can you?'
'How? If—if you still love me, I can forget—'
Orsino's eyes were suddenly moist. It seemed as though something broke, and let in the light.
'I shall always love you,' he said simply; as men sometimes do when they are very much in earnest.
'And I—'
She did not finish the sentence in words, but her hand and face said the rest.