She was frightened.
'Oh! how can you stand there so coldly and watch my agony? Don't you see? How can you be so cold?'
'I am not cold, Ferdinand,' she said, trembling. 'Do you think I have been happy while you were away?'
'Valentia!'
'I thought of you, too, Ferdinand, all day, all night. And I longed for you to come back. I did not know till you went that—I loved you.'
'Oh, Valentia!'
He took her in his arms and pressed her passionately to him.
'No, for God's sake!'
She tore herself away. But again he took her in his arms, and this time he kissed her on the mouth. She tried to turn her face away.
'I shall kill myself, Ferdinand!'