"You shall tell me nothing save what you choose," he says, clearly and very tenderly. "I have perfect faith in you. Had I less than that, I would not ask you to be my wife."
She looks at him with astonishment and with wondering admiration.
"Yet you know so little of me!" she murmurs, in amaze.
"I love you," says Brandolin; then he kisses her hand with great reverence.
The tears which she had thought driven from her eyes forever, rise in them now.
"You are very noble," she replies, and leaves her hand for an instant within his.
The Babe, who has been watching from behind a tuft of laurel, can control his impatience no longer, but comes out of his ambush and runs towards them, regardless of how undesired he may be.
"Dodo says that women never marry anybody they love," he says, breathlessly; "but that is not true, is it, and you will let me carry your train?"
"Hush, my dear," says Xenia Sabaroff, laying her hand on the child's shoulder, while there is a sound in her voice which subdues to silence even the audacious spirit of the Babe.
"Give me time to think," she says, in a low tone to Brandolin; and then, with her hand still on the little boy's shoulder, she turns away from him and walks slowly towards the house.