"I know he would not if you were near. Only, when I am alone——"
"Would God you never were alone."
She looked up with shy, startled eyes, for the cry had come from a man's heart.
"I am used to being alone at Langton," she answered simply.
"Alone!" he answered, bending his dark head closer to hers. "Why should you be, my darling, my darling, when I need you so sorely at Berrington?"
The blushes on her cheeks were not angry ones this time, and her eyes were smiling into his.
"You ... need ... me?"
"Always and for ever, Gabrielle."
"And I need you," she answered, with a happy sigh, as she allowed him to take her in his strong arms, laying her head on his shoulder with the content of a child who is tired of battling alone with life.
Autumn winds may moan, and shadows of coming sorrows may lie deep across life's pathway, but where love's glory sheds its golden light the eyes are too dazzled to look beyond.