“The dastard. I was sure of it from the first. Well, he had the facts in that last letter, didn’t he?”
“Yes,” she answered with a smile.
They rose to return to the Mansion, roused by the stroke of midnight from the clock in the tower of the City Hall.
“From to-night, my dear,” he said, with enthusiasm, “you will share with me all the honours and responsibilities of public life.”
“No, my love, I do not desire any part in public life except through you. You are my world. I ask no higher gift of God than your love, whether you live in a Governor’s Mansion, or the humblest cottage. I desire no career save that of a wife—your wife”—she hid her face on his breast as a little sob caught her voice, “and I would not change places with the proudest queen that ever wore a crown!” She said this looking up into his face through a mist of tears.
With trembling lips and dimmed eyes he stooped and kissed her as he replied, “And I had rather be the husband of such a woman than to be the ruler of the world.”