"You must always be the same to me," he said, almost under his breath. "You have given me this new life—do not take it from me again—the old would be impossible now, not to be lived."
"It need never be lived, it never shall be, if I live myself," answered Laura. "If only I could make you sure of that, I should be really happy. But you do not really doubt it, Herbert, do you?"
"No, dear, to doubt you would be to doubt everything—though it is hard to believe that it can all be so good, and last."
"It does not seem hard to me. Perhaps a woman believes everything more easily than a man does. She needs to believe more, I suppose, and so she finds it easy."
"No woman ever needed to believe as much as I," answered Arden, thoughtfully. He still held her hand, and passed one of his own lightly over it, just pressing it now and then, as though to make sure that it was real. "Except yourself, dear one," he added a moment later, with a sharp, short breath, as though something hurt him.
Laura was quick to understand him, and to feel all that he felt. She heard the little sigh and looked into his face and saw the expression of something like pain there. She laid her free hand upon his shoulder and gazed into his soft brown eyes.
"Herbert dear," she said, "I know what you are thinking about. I was put into the world to make you forget those things, and, God willing, I will. You shall forget them as completely as I do, or if you remember them they shall be dear to you, in a way, as they are to me."
A wonderful look of loving gratitude was in his face, and he pressed her fingers closely in his.
"Tell me one thing, Laura—only this once and I will not speak of it again. When you touch me—when you lay your hand on my shoulder—when you kiss my forehead—tell me quite truly, dear, do you not feel anything like—like a sort of horror, a kind of repulsion, as if you were touching something—well—unpleasant to touch?"
Poor Arden really did not know how much he was loved. Laura's deep eyes opened wide for an instant, as he spoke, then almost closed again, and her lips quivered. Then suddenly without warning the bright tears welled up and overflowed. She hid her face in her hands and sobbed bitterly.