She drew back and gazed at him with a flashing, imperious manner. “What does this mean?”
“It means I love you!” he cried. “It means I do not care who you are—what you are. I love you. I love you! With all my heart—with all my soul!”
At the sight of his big, strong, quivering body, his tense, working face, the hauteur all slipped out of her bearing.
“You are in earnest?” she asked slowly, in amazement.
“God strike me dead if I am not! And as never before in all my life!”
“I am sorry—sorry,” she said with true sympathy. “Even if I cared—it could not be. The liberty of my country has first place in my heart. That is my husband.”
“Then you refuse me?” cried Drexel.
“I must.”
“And this is final?”
“It is.”