'Why?' she asked, impetuously.
'Because there are hopeless obstacles between us.'
'I have none,' was her somewhat pointed reply.
'But I have,' said he, while bead-drops coursed from his temples; and she regarded him curiously through her veil, and said,
'Then you should never have addressed me at all in the language of a lover. I had good reason to suspect something of this kind,' she continued, in a tone of severity.
'And hence it was that you always spoke so enigmatically to me.'
'Perhaps.'
'As one who would judge of a man by his past history rather than by his capacity for good in the future, and so judged me harshly.'
He stooped from his saddle, and suddenly kissed her gloved hand. As he did so she heard him whisper, as if to himself,
'My darling—my darling—without destroying your honour and my own, I can hope for no nearer caress. Pardon me,' he added, aloud.