“Of course,” she said, “I would not do anything wrong, but you know I am obliged to use a little strategy for your sake, darling.”
“Yes, dearest,” he said, “you are wise in doing so.”
“For you know,” she said, “I shall be obliged to ask papa for a full allowance.”
They were seated in their room at a fashionable hotel, Irene dressed in her most becoming attire, and looking her loveliest.
“My darling,” he said, taking her in his arms, “how beautiful you look, and how happy we shall be together. I could never have lived without you, my love, my life.”
She raised her beautiful eyes to his face, then dropping her head on his shoulder, said:
“Oh, Max, if anything should happen to separate us.”
“Nothing will, nothing can come between such love 185 as ours. Do not be frightened, dearest, nothing shall ever separate us but death. That man you called your husband never was your husband. He never knew how to appreciate the love of such a woman as you. Promise me, darling, that you will not think of him, but let us live in the light of our own love, and forget that he has ever caused you one heartache.”
“Dear Max,” she said, speaking softly, “how few men there are like you. If he had been like you I might have been happy.”
“Never mind, darling, you will be happy in future, for I shall do all in my power to make a paradise for you in the land where we are going. We’ll have no books that are not tales of love, and in our own fairy little palace, amidst the perfumed lights we’ll guess what star shall be our home when love becomes immortal.”