"Forgive me."
Her mouth twisted; and it was a contraction he had noticed at the corners of Anne's lips.
"You know quite well," she said, and he was conscious of the deepened tone of her voice, "you know quite well that I have forgiven you. I had my faults as well."
He answered very quickly, with the bitter knowledge of his cruelty, of his cowardice; but, cowardly and cruel, it would be necessary to love but once, to overcome that, and even then....
"I did not know how much I loved you. You are the wife of my youth, Elizabeth. I find all my love for you intact."
"Intact?" she repeated.
And she gazed at him with large troubled eyes. Had the hour come? Trembling, ready to fall into his arms, she was waiting for one single word:
"Yes."
He wanted to draw her to him, to press her to his heart. So many bonds were being renewed; could the distance ever be bridged? Did she read to the depth of his troubled heart? She knew his desire and gently rejected it:
"No, no, Albert, not yet, Please!"