“Oh, Hugh!” she answered; “it was indeed a task difficult to execute, but you so earnestly wished me to meet you that I am here.”
“It is shameful of me to doubt you, Helen, after the proofs of affection which you have bestowed upon me, yet I know the full value of my prize, and I so fear to lose it.”
“And you still love me, Hugh?” she asked, thoughtfully.
“Love you!—oh, Helen! why do you ask that terrible question? Have I changed in look, in word, in thought, in act?” he exclaimed, earnestly.
“No!” she said, “oh, no! yet do you not think a time may come when your love for me will be diverted to another?”
“Helen!”
“Can you not, Hugh, imagine a time when one fairer, less exacting, more gentle, than myself, may win from me that love you say I now alone possess?”
“Helen, this language affrights me—I do not understand it!” he exclaimed, in a tone of surprise; and then added, passionately, “surely it is not for you to hazard such a terrible supposition! I love you, Helen—I have sworn it! I shall never change, never swerve from that adoration, that idolatry, with which I worship you. Oh! we are about to part for a time, Helen, and is this a moment to raise such doubts?”
She remained silent.
He pressed his clenched hand upon his heart, and said, with deep emotion—