“And I have told you that I love you, and you have taken me in your arms, and have kissed me—”
“Yes.”
“And I am walking now with my hand in yours—”
“And will continue to do so, if I can hold it.”
“And I am another man’s wife,” she shuddered.
“You are mine,” he declared doggedly. “You know it, and the Almighty God knows it. It is blasphemy to speak of yourself as Graham’s wife. You are legally entangled with him, and that is all. Heart and soul and body you are free.”
“No, I am not free.”
“But you are!”
And then, after a moment, she whispered at his shoulder: “Alan, because you are the finest gentleman in all the world, I will tell you why I am not. It is because—heart and soul—I belong to you.”
He dared not look at her, and feeling the struggle within him Mary Standish looked straight ahead with a wonderful smile on her lips and repeated softly, “Yes, the very finest gentleman in all the world!”