"What do you think of the plan?" he asks.
"I hardly know," the girl answers, with some embarrassment.
"But you will do as I wish you—you will go back—in my care, Reine?"
"If you think it for the best," she answers very low.
"I do think so, otherwise I should not urge it. You need not be afraid to go with me, Reine. I will care for you with every tenderness—you are my wife, you know."
And, stooping over her, he lays his lips full and softly upon her own.
The shock of a great, new happiness tingles through the girl's sensitive frame. It is the first caress her unloving husband has ever offered her. With that impulsive kiss hope, which has almost died in her wounded heart, is born anew.
"You are my wife," he repeats, gently. "I shall not lose sight of that fact again. I shall remember my duty better."
She sighs a little. That word "duty" sounds so cold.
"I will try to make you happier," he continues; "I fear you have not been so light-hearted as you used to be since that night. Do you know those verses you were reading this evening sounded like a reproach to me?"