"Refused!" he exclaimed. "There are some things one cannot refuse—like the sunshine. But do you know what a terrible sacrifice you are making?"
"It is you, then, who are making no sacrifice at all," she said, reproachfully. "What do I sacrifice more than every girl must sacrifice when she marries? England is not my
home as it is your home; we have lived everywhere; I have no childhood's friends to leave, as many a girl has."
"Your father—"
"After a little while my father will scarcely miss me; he is too busy."
But presently she added,
"If you had remained in England I should never have been your wife."
"Why?" he said with some surprise.
"I should never have married against my father's wishes," she said, thoughtfully. "No. My promise to you was that I would be your wife, or the wife of no one. I would have kept that promise. But as long as we could have seen each other, and been with each other from time to time, I don't think I could have married against my father's wish. Now it is quite different. Your going to America has changed it all. Ah, my dear friend, you don't know what I suffered one or two nights before I could decide what was right for me to do!"
"I can guess," he said, in a low voice, in answer to that brief sigh of hers.