"It would make no difference. I should deplore such an unfortunate occurrence deeply, on her account, for she is a noble woman in a million. But it would be utterly impossible for me to love another as I have you, Georgia."
And he believed what he said, showing that he was sincere, at any rate.
His words made her eyes glisten with delight, for who does not yearn to hear such phrases falling from the lips of an adored one.
"You solemnly swear that is true?" she asked, willing to believe, yet filled with womanly doubts.
"By everything sacred, by the memory of that happy past which my wretched jealousy slaughtered, by the grave of my revered mother I swear that I love and have loved no woman on earth but one, and she is before me."
"Then you shall hear the condition upon which you may wipe out the past—upon which I shall again believe in you with all my heart and soul, and forget the cruel wrong you did me."
"Name it, for Heaven's sake, Georgia. You shall see that I am in deadly earnest—that I abhor myself for the miserable way in which I fled from happiness and you. Yes, though it take me to the ends of the world, I shall go, proud to convince you that as once before I am above all others your preux chevalier. What would you have me do—all I ask is that it may not be to the prejudice of my beloved country for which I have sworn to stand to the death against all her foreign foes."
"Find Leon for me!"
It was a marvelously strange request and quite enough to stagger the man of whom the imperious demand was made.