So ran my Innocent Maiden Dream.
"Yes, why not!" he said passionately. "What is fame, reputation, weighed against love? What is it to be on the World's lips, if the lips we love are to be taken away?"
"How pretty!" she said with simple admiration. "If you will not claim the phrase, I should like to give it to my next heroine."
"Claim it!" he said bitterly. "I do not want any phrases. I want you."
"Do you not see it is impossible? If you could become obscure again, it might be. You say fame is nothing weighed against love. Come now, would you give up your genius, your reputation, just to marry me?"
He was silent.
"Come!" she repeated. "I have been frank with you, have I not!"
"You have," he admitted, with a melancholy grimace.
"Well, be equally frank with me. Would you sacrifice these things to your love for me?"
"I could not if I would."