'A thrill?'
'A shudder!' she answered,
'What causes it?'
'I cannot, cannot tell'
'My poor Ida! your nerves are all unstrung, and that absurd book of Reichenbach's has made you worse. Promise to marry me, Ida, and we will go to Switzerland, to Scotland, or anywhere that the breezes of mountains or the sea may restore you to what you once were, even as fate has restored you to me!'
But the lovely head was shaken sadly, and the pale face was turned to the distant landscape. The passion with which he loved her was of a quality certainly very rare in the world of 'society,' she knew that.
'Your wants are very simple, as your tastes are, Ida, and my fortune is more than equal to your own—in worldly matters there can be nothing wanting.'
'I know, Jerry, that a devotion such as yours deserves all the love I could and ought to give it; and yet——'
She paused, and permitted him to retain her hand. Was she, in spite of her asseverations to the contrary, about to love him after all? The heart of Vane beat wildly amid the dawn of fresh hope.
'Many men have loved, Ida,' he urged, in a soft, low, passionate tone; 'but it seems to me that I love you as few men have ever loved before. From the first moment I met you I loved you—and—and—surely circumstances have tested and tried that love to the uttermost.'