"Reproach me not," he interrupted. "I have suffered more than you, and, for a farewell visit, I did not dare to trust myself."
"And so this is to be the end of your enduring love, that you said was to be mine, and only mine, till death!"
"And before Heaven I spoke the truth. I have never loved—I never shall love but you. Yet, Gina, what would you have me do? I may not speak to you of marriage; and it is necessary to my position that I wed."
"She is of your own rank, therefore you have wooed her?"
"And of my own faith. Difference in rank may be overcome; in faith, never."
"Oh that the time had come when God's children shall be all of one mind!" she uttered; "when the same mode of worship, and that a pure one, shall animate us all. In the later ages, this peace may be upon the earth."
"Would to the saints that it were now, Gina; or that you and I had never met."
"What! do you wish it?" she contemptuously exclaimed; "you, who voluntarily sever yourself from me?"
"I have acted an honorable part, Gina," he cried, striding to and fro in his agitation.
"Honorable, did you say?"