“Oh, please don’t say it, even as a joke, Ward!” she pleaded, dropping a book she had opened and laying her hands on his arm.
“Well, I won’t then! I was jealous of that book. You were so absorbed I almost felt that I was alone in the room. And I was horribly oppressed by the general vacancy, emptiness, voidness! Now my vanity is touched to find that you hadn’t really gone away and left me; you’re very much here!”
“You’re so foolish!” she said. “What were the books you found in your room at that place where you were ill?”
“Oh, they were on the occult and had been left behind by some enthusiastic spook hunter. After that hour when I so plainly saw you right there by my bed I studied those books carefully. I wanted to explain the transformation of a very plain nurse in spectacles into the most beautiful girl in the world!”
“And,—did you explain it?”
“Yes; but not from the books!”
“How was it then?”
“My heart did the explaining. I knew I loved you! That’s the answer to all my questions.”
“You do love me, Ward, really and truly?”
“Yes, dear,” and then with head lifted he added as though repeating a pledge from some ritual: “With all my heart, with all my soul, with every hope of happiness I have for the future, I love you!”