“Ah, no!” she cried in a pained voice, rising to her feet with sudden resolution. “You really must not say this. I will not let you sacrifice yourself. I will not allow you to thus—”
“It is no sacrifice,” I protested, quickly interrupting. “I love you, Eva, with all my soul. One woman alone in all the world holds me beneath the spell of her grace, her charm and her sweetness. It is yourself. Every hour I think only of you; ever before me your face rises in my day-dreams, and in those moments when I see your sweet smiles I tell myself that no other woman can ever have a place in my heart. Ah! you cannot know how fondly I love you,” I said, raising the hand tenderly to my lips and imprinting a kiss upon it. “If you could only know you would never treat me with this cold, calm indifference.”
Her bosom rose and fell slowly, and she was silent. I fancied that she shuddered slightly.
At that moment my position struck me as an extremely strange one, declaring love to one whom an expert detective suspected of having made a cowardly attempt upon my life. Was it just? I asked myself. Yes, in this I was justified, for I loved her, even though I had more than once been inclined to agree with Boyd in his misgivings.
“I was not aware of any indifference,” she faltered at last, raising her great eyes, so clear and earnest, for an instant to mine. “I had merely urged you to reflect.”
“Reflection is unnecessary,” I answered quickly. “I know that I love you truly. That surely is sufficient.”
“It might be if I were free,” she responded in a low, hoarse voice. “But I tell you to-day, Frank, as I told you before, this love dream of ours is impossible of realisation.”
“Then you do reciprocate my love?” I cried, in joyous eagerness. “Come, tell me. Do not keep me longer in suspense.”
“I have already told you,” she answered in a low, intense voice. “Of what use is it to continue this painful discussion?”
“Of every use,” I cried in desperation. “Give me one word of hope, Eva. Tell me that some day you will try and love me better than you do now; that some day in the future you will become my wife. Tell me—”