“I am very sorry,” said the other, gently.
“You simply must not talk to me so!” cried the girl; “if you do you will make me so that I cannot bear to leave you for an instant. For those thoughts make my love for you simply desperate, David; I cry out to myself that I never have loved you enough, never told you enough!” And then she added pleadingly, “But oh, you know that I love you, do you not, dear? Tell me.”
“Yes, I know it,” said the other gently, taking her in his arms and kissing her.
“Come back soon,” Helen went on, “and I will tell you once more how much I do; and then we can be happy again, and I won't be afraid any more. Please let me be happy, won't you, David?”
“Yes, love, I will,” said the man with a smile. “I do not think that I was wise ever to trouble you.”
Helen was silent for a while, then as a sudden thought occurred to her she added: “David, I meant to tell you something—do you know if those horrible thoughts keep haunting me, it is just this that they will make me do; you said that God was very good, and so I was thinking that I would show him how very much I love you, how I could really never get along without you, and how I care for nothing else in the world. It seems to me to be such a little thing, that we should only just want to love; and truly, that is all I do want,—I would not mind anything else in the world,—I would go away from this little house and live in any poor place, and do all the work, and never care about anything else at all, if I just might have you. That is really true, David, and I wish that you would know it, and that God would know it, and not expect me to think of such dreadful things as you talk of.”
As David gazed into her deep, earnest eyes he pressed her to him with a sudden burst of emotion. “You have me now, dearest,” he whispered, “and oh, I shall trust the God who gave me this precious heart!”—He kissed her once more in fervent love, and kissed her again and again until the clouds had left her face. She leaned back and gazed at him, and was radiant with delight again. “Oh—oh—oh!” she cried. “David, it only makes me more full of wonder at the real truth! For it is the truth, David, it is the truth—that you are all mine! It is so wonderful, and it makes me so happy,—I seem to lose myself more in the thought every day!”
“You can never lose yourself too much, little sweetheart,” David whispered; “let us trust to love, and let it grow all that it will. Helen, I never knew what it was to live until I met you,—never knew how life could be so full and rich and happy. And never, never will I be able to tell you how much I love you, dearest soul.”
“Oh, but I believe you without being told!” she said, laughing. “Do you know, I could make myself quite mad just with saying over to myself that you love me all that I could ever wish you to love me, all that I could imagine you loving me! Isn't that true, David?”
“Yes, that is true,” the man replied.