She lifted her arms as he crossed swiftly to her, and clung to him, and gave him her lips in glad and complete surrender, while he held her close and murmured to her the words that he had been so hungry to speak, she so hungry to hear.
“Jem,” she whispered presently, “you cannot give me up now, Jem.”
“I never did, dear love,” he said.
“Though all the world wax colder,
Though all the songs be sung.
In dreams doth he—”
“Ah, but you did. You tried. How could you even try!”
“I never did. Not really. Not for a moment. Not even when I thought you had married some one else.”
She moved in his arms to hide her eyes against his face.
“You must have known that I never could,” she murmured.