"Yes, yes, I know, but if there is no past. If it is resurrected——"
"Let us not talk about it," she said. "I have heard all about it, and—well, I have given you my promise."
"But if I am worse than you thought," he cried; "if you find out something which you cannot forgive. If some one told you that I am a fraud, a lie, a villain?"
"I should still trust you," she said quietly. "You have never told me a lie, have you?"
"No," he said, "I have never told you a lie."
"Then I should laugh at what I heard. You have told me that since your Oxford fiasco, when that girl jilted you, no woman has in any way ever come into your life."
"Yes, I have told you that, and it is true; bad as I may have been since that time, I have never given any woman but you a thought. If there is a God, He knows that my words are true."
Olive Castlemaine laughed merrily.
"Then," she said, "I shall not trouble a little bit about what I hear."
He looked up into her face, his eyes all afire with the ardour of his love. With her by his side, all things were possible. He was still a cynic with regard to others, but he no more doubted Olive than he doubted the sunlight. She was beyond suspicion, and yet his very faith in her made him fear that the coming day could never fulfil his hopes.