He knew that he was speaking truth to her and it gave him courage.
"Yes; yes!" she cried. "I know that above all and everything."
Joyce saw that she was gaining power. She knew that, marvellous as it seemed, she was to shape their future lives. But she must have the sky clear. Gaston, she felt, recognized this as well as she. He expected but one outcome; he saw her love, and was willing to show his own, now that the barriers were down.
"We need ask nothing!" he said softly; "and there are deeper woods to the north, dear."
"Can you—will you—tell me about yourself before—you came here?"
The question was asked simply and it was proof, if any were needed, that the past false position was utterly annihilated.
Gaston accepted the changed conditions with no sense of surprise. He acknowledged her right to all that she desired.
"When I said, a time back"; he began slowly; "that they—those good people we were talking about—would let me into their world if I—left you"; his fingers closed firmer over her hands; "I did not tell you that there is another reason why they would not let me in. They could overlook some things—but not others. Suppose I should tell you that I had done a wrong that was worse, in their eyes, than almost anything else?"
"I would not believe it!"
"But that is God's truth."