Dicky glanced down upon the eager, wistful face beside him, and smiled whimsically.
"Madam," he said, "your fears are groundless."
"How do you know?" enquired Madam, convinced in her heart, but anxious to be reassured.
"Because," said Dicky simply, "you love me. You have said it. Don't you see how that binds me to you? The mere fact of your love for me makes mine for you imperishable. The moment a man discovers that the woman he loves loves him in return, he is hers, body and soul. Previous to that something has held him back. Pride--reserve--caution--call it what you like--it has held him back. He has not let himself go utterly. After all, we can only give of our best once in this life, and usually some instinct inside us makes us refuse to surrender that best, however prodigal we may have been of the inferior article, until we know that we are going to get the best in return." Dicky was talking very earnestly now. "I have been keeping my best for you all these years, little maid, though neither of us knew it. Such as it is, you have it. That is why I know I can never go back on you. Besides, what man worthy of the name could let a girl down, once she had abandoned her reserve--her beautiful woman's reserve--and confessed her great secret to him? Why, I once nearly married a girl whom I could not stand at any price, just because the little idiot gave herself away one day when we were alone together."
"Why should you have married her," asked single-minded, feminine Tilly wonderingly, "if you did n't love her?"
"It seemed so mean not to," said Dicky.
Tilly nodded her head gravely.
"Yes," she said, "I think I understand." (As a matter of fact, she did not. To her, as to most women, such a quixotic piece of folly as that to which Dicky had just confessed was incomprehensible. But she desired to please her lover.) "It was like you to do it, but I hate the girl. I expect she was a designing minx. But go on, dear. Go on convincing me. I love it. Say it over and over again."
"Say what?" enquired Dicky, who was not aware that he had been saying anything unusual.
"Pearls, and things like that," replied Tilly shyly.