"There, there," he whispered tenderly, "I didn't shrink from you, dear. I couldn't shrink from you—you only imagined it. I was just stunned for a moment. The blow blinded me. But it's all right now, I see things clearly. I love you—that's all—and love is from God, or it's not love, it's a sham——"
A low sob and she clung to him with desperate tenderness.
He bent his head close until the blonde hair mingled with the rich brown:
"Hush, my own! If a single nerve of my body shrank from your little hand, find it and I'll tear it out!"
She withdrew herself slowly from his embrace, and brushed the tears from her eyes with a little movement of quiet resignation:
"It's all right. I'm calm again and it's all over. I won't mind now if you shrink a little. I'm really glad that you did. It needed just that to convince me that your father was right. Our love would end in the ruin of your life. I see it clearly now. It would become to you at last a conscious degradation. That I couldn't endure."
"I have your solemn vow," he interrupted impatiently, "you're mine! I'll not give you up!"
She looked at him sadly:
"But I'm going, dear, in a few minutes. You can't hold me—now that I know it's for the best."
"You can't mean this?"