“Do I understand you,” she said at last, “that you mean to follow me?”
“To the world’s end,” he cried.
“Is his manly, to force yourself upon a helpless woman?”
“No; it is despicable perhaps, but I am lost now to reason. You are everything to me; to be near you is to live—to lose sight of you is to die. You are my fate, and you draw me to your side.”
“To your ruin, perhaps to your death,” she said wildly. “You must have grasped what kind of men my relatives are. You must have seen what risk you run.”
“Yes, I have seen and thought out all this, but it is as nothing to your love.”
“And would you see me suffer through your folly and imprudence?”
“I would give anything to spare you suffering.”
“Then leave me before my agony becomes too great to bear.”
“I—can—not!” he cried. “Drive me from you, and when I find that all hope is gone, then I will seek for rest.”