"Valerie!"
Her head nestled closer:
"Because I am going to marry you, Louis…. You were right…. If I
fail, as your wife, to win my way in your world, then it will be because
I have attempted the impossible. Which is no crime…. Who was it said
'Not failure, but low aim is crime'?"
She sighed, nestling closer like a child seeking rest:
"I am not coward enough to run away from you and destiny…. And if I stay, only two ways remain…. And the lawful is the better for us both…." She laid her flushed cheek against his: "Because," she said dreamily, "there is one thing of which I never thought—children…. And I don't, perhaps, exactly understand, but I realise that—such things have happened;—and that it could happen to—us."
She lay silent for a while, her fingers restless on his shoulder; then she spoke again in the same dreamy voice of a half-awakened child:
"Each for the other's sake is not enough. It must be broader, wider, more generous … it must be for the sake of all…. I have learned this…. We can learn it better together…. Louis, can you guess what I did the day your letter came to me at Estwich?"
"What did you do, my darling?"
"I went to Ashuelyn."
"What?"