"Very well!" she replied gently. "Just as you think best."
"Tell me you love me, Leonie, let me be sure of that, let me just hear you say it once."
She put out both her hands, and he took them and kissed them.
"Dear, do you count me as so little? Don't you know, cannot you feel that a love like mine endures for ever?"
"Do you still want the little white house behind the white wall—Leonie, do you!"
"Oh! Jan!"
"Well, marry me—marry me, beloved, and give me the right to protect you—from trouble, and these slanderous, murderous tongues."
Leonie's face was lovely to behold, swept by a wave of colour, and with eyes like stars; but she shook her head although a little smile parted the crimson mouth.
"No! Jan! Nothing will make me change. Not until we know and until I am cured. Do you think I would risk our love, and our happiness? I shall never, never marry you as long as I have this—this longing to—this desire to—to—oh! what is it. Find out what has happened to me, find out what I do when I walk in my sleep—just how mad I am, and if the madness can be cured, and if it can, then I will—will——"
"Yes, dear?"