Her well-gloved hand moved convulsively on his shoulder.
“Yes, darling Anna,” he continued in a lower tone, but more eagerly than before—“I love you as never man can have loved before,—I love you with all my heart and with all my soul, and the proudest and happiest moment of my life will be that in which I shall be able to call you mine—my own! Tell me, dearest Anna, tell me, may I hope for some return of my love?”
The girl’s eye fell before his burning glance, but this was a turning point in her life, and when it was a question of such vital importance to both, she was much too frank and too honest to try and hide her feelings under a cloak of false modesty. Very softly therefore; but in a voice which to Charles was distinctly audible, she murmured, “Yes.”
For a few moments he was silent, and seemed lost in thought Gently they glided on together to the time of that delightful music, and, though in the midst of a throng of dancers, wholly engrossed in each other, they felt as lonely as on some island washed by the storm-tossed waves.
But his arm now more firmly clasped her waist, for a single instant it seemed as if he would have caught her up to his breast and held her there, as if to take possession of his treasure.
“You make me too happy,” said he at length, “You make me too happy with that little word, which to me is full of the deepest meaning. Now will you allow me to see your parents to-morrow and lay before them my formal request for your hand?”
At these words the girl’s countenance fell, she replied however:
“Most certainly I will allow you, Mr. van Ne——”
“My name is Charles, dearest Anna,” whispered the young man.
“Certainly, Charles, I will allow you—but it would not be right to try and conceal from you the fact that my father is prejudiced against you. My father does not like you at all, I have gathered that from many an unguarded expression that has fallen from him.”