"When you please," he said. "I have no commands. You are perfectly free to do as you like. I need you always now."
"Then I will go tonight," she said firmly.
He turned his eyes upon her in a look she never forgot.
"My dearest girl, do you realize what you are doing? Do you realize that you are entering upon a problematical line of action—that you are inviting pain and sorrow and care, that you are leaving girlhood and leisure behind—that you are entering gates that never swing outward. Do you know this—once more and finally, do you realize all this?"
She stood before him stronger than he; he felt it. She knew him at last since that touch of his lips to her arm, since that look in his eyes—and she said: "I realize it all, and I choose it."