“I shall never see you again after to-day. You must be satisfied with that,” she replied, tossing her head and turning her face away from his shining and pleading eyes.
“How can I be satisfied—” he began, and the wind blew her hair as she turned her head away and showed one little pink-tinted ear nestling among the curls. His gaze devoured it. “How can I,” he went on, “when you—when you have such a beautiful ear!”
“What difference does it make when we can never see each other again?” Her manner was evasive and her speech hesitating, for she was trying hard to bring herself to the point of telling him the fateful secret.
“All the difference in the world! Lucy, sweetheart! Tell me if you care!” He leaned toward her and took her wrist in his hand.
“It had come, this question she had not meant to let him ask”
“You’ve no right to ask that question again! I shall say no more than I have said already.” She made an effort to release her arm, but he would not relax his firm, though gentle and caressing, grasp.
“Lucy, I would never beg for a woman’s love, nor ask her to try to care for me, if she didn’t love me, of herself. But when the woman I love with all my heart won’t deny that she loves me, then I must hear her say in her own sweet voice that she does. Lucy, darling, tell me that you love me!”
She was trembling from head to foot, but she drew herself together with fresh determination and held her head up proudly as she answered, looking straight ahead: “I have told you that I shall never marry, and that after to-day I shall never see you again. That must be enough, for I shall say no more.”