CHAPTER XXV.
A NEW CHARACTER IS INTRODUCED.
"And now, love," the eager wooer continued, as he dropped the hand he had been holding and drew the happy girl into his arms, "you will give yourself to me—you will give me the right to stand between you and all future care or trouble?"
"Then you do not mind what I have just told you?" questioned Edith, timidly.
"Not in the least, only so far as it occasions you unhappiness or anxiety," unhesitatingly replied the young man. "You are unscathed by it—the sin and the shame belong alone to the man who ruined the life of your mother. You are my pearl, my fair lily, unspotted by any blight, and I should be unworthy of you, indeed, did I allow what you have told me to prejudice me in the slightest degree. Now tell me, Edith, that henceforth there shall be no barrier between us—tell me that you love me."
"How can I help it?" she murmured, as with a flood of ineffable joy sweeping into her soul she dropped her bright head upon his breast and yielded to his embrace.
"And will you be my wife?"
"Oh, if it is possible—if I can be," she faltered. "Are you sure that I am not already bound?"
"Leave all that to me—do not fret, even for one second, over it," her lover tenderly returned. Then he added, more lightly: "I am so sure, sweetheart, that to-morrow I shall bring you a letter which will proclaim to all whom it may concern, that henceforth you belong to me."