"Every need," she said vehemently, and with a suspicion of tears in her voice, "I have been so lonely all my life. No one has ever loved me. I have been kicked about from pillar to post, neglected, starved, beaten, scorned. Oh, dearest heart," she looked up passionately into his face, "can you wonder that I want you to tell me again and again how much you love me."
"I love you,--I love you,--I love you. There, will that do?"
"Again! Again!" she hid her face in his breast, and he bent over her till his lips touched her soft hair.
"I love you with all my heart and soul, you are the one woman in the wide world to me."
"And I am the only woman, not Maud."
"Maud!" he snapped his fingers, "pouf."
"Ah," said Elspeth jealously, "but you loved her,--you would have married her."
"I loved her in the usual way a shallow young man loves. She was pretty and coquettish when I was with her in Edinburgh, and her exterior drew me. I loved her merely for her beauty, never for her heart and beautiful nature, as I love you, dearest. It required months of misery to deepen my nature and make me appreciate a true woman, such as you are. Ours is one of those rare marriages that is made in heaven. Never be jealous of Maud Tedder, my own love; you alone possess my heart."
"I know it, I feel it. All the same,--" she paused.
"All the same----?"