She was listening with bated breath, because he was voicing her own thoughts.
"It's being good to others besides yourself," he continued. "Forgetting yourself for them—when that is n't easy."
"Yes, it's that," she said.
"I don't want to boast," he said; "but, in a way, I come nearer being good at this moment, than ever before in my life."
"You mean because it's tiresome for you to sit there?"
"Because it's hard for me to sit here when I'd like to be kneeling by your side, kissing your hand, your forehead, your lips," he answered passionately.
She started to her elbow.
"I shan't move," he assured her. "But it is n't easy to sit here like a bump on a log with everything you're starving for within arm's reach."
"Monte!" she gasped. "Perhaps you'd better not talk."
"If it were only as easy to stop thinking!"