“Please, Morris, don’t say any more,” she pleaded.
“Yes, I will,” he cried. “I love you. How could I keep you from seeing it in my eyes, when you were free at last, and I knew you might be mine?”
“You must not say this to me!” she protested.
He scowled and pursed his lips.
“I will. I am coming to this house when I please. I am going to give you the protection of my life. Every dollar I have, every moment of my time shall be yours if you need it. Ah, Ruth, how I have loved you through the desolate years since you sent me away! Men have called me cold and selfish and ambitious, when I was lying awake at night eating my heart out dreaming of you. Every hour of work, every step I’ve climbed in the struggle of life, was with your face smiling on me from the past. All my hopes and ambitions I owe to you. The last message you spoke to me has been my guiding star. And when this man threw you from him as a cast-off garment—you, the beautiful queen of my soul—I would have killed him but for the fierce joy that now I could win you!”
She shook her head and a look of pain overspread her face.
“I know what you will say,” he went on rapidly. “You need not protest. I will be patient. I will wait, but I will win you. I’ve sworn it by every oath that can bind the soul. I have no other purpose in life. I’m going to be the Governor of New York simply because I’m going to lift you from the shame this man has heaped upon you and make you the mistress of the Governor’s mansion of this mighty state. Washington is but one step from Albany. My dream is for you. I will be to you the soul of deference and of tender honour. Your slightest wish will be my law, I will be silent if you command. But you cannot keep me away. If you leave me, I will follow you to the ends of the earth.”
Ruth was softly crying.
“You must not cry, my love. I will make your life glorious, and light every shadow with the tenderness of a strong man’s worship.”
“And you love me like this when another has robbed my soul and body of their treasures and cast me aside?” she asked, wistfully.