“Your father says that I must be ready to marry you within a year or else——” he paused.
“Or else what?” she asked anxiously.
“The worst. I shall have to give you up.”
Philip saw her face pale. She arose and stood at his side, her hand upon his shoulder, her head tilted so that she could look into his face.
“It shall be only you, Philip. If it is not you it shall be no other.”
He gazed at her in silence, trying to read the depth of her faith in her eyes. The thought that she was beautiful and that he loved her came strongly to him.
“You believe in me, Philip; you trust me?”
“As I do no one else—as I never shall another. It is you and only you. Everything is centered or ends forever in you.” And then he laughed lightly. “After all, it is not so bad. Perhaps this will force our happiness upon us sooner than we have dared anticipate.”
“How long did he say?”
“Within a year, and it is so short a time,” he said, with a deep breath.