“But do you still care for me?” he asked with earnestness, putting his arm around her slim waist and pressing her to his breast. “Promise me, Dolly,” he pleaded—“promise me that you will be my wife!”
“Do you love me sufficiently?”
“Can you doubt me?”
“No,” she replied, in a tremulous voice; “I do not doubt you, Hugh. I will be your wife.”
Then she bent her fair head, and hid from him her tears of happiness. The only light that can show us the road to better things is that which shines within us. The words he uttered were tender and reassuring, and for a long time they stood together talking of the new, bright, and unclouded life that lay before them.
Meanwhile the exquisite gradations of colour on sea and land had faded, the glow upon the horizon had disappeared, the wind had fallen, and all was calm and still in the mystic gloom of the dying day.
Startled by hearing voices behind them, they turned and faced Jack and Gabrielle, who had approached unnoticed.
After a hearty laugh and some good-natured chaff in English, the purport of which was not thoroughly understood by mademoiselle, Hugh grasped the artist’s hand, and, wringing it warmly exclaimed—
“Congratulate me, old fellow! I’m beginning life afresh from to-day. Dolly has consented to become my wife.”
“By Jove, is that so?” Egerton cried, in pleasant surprise. “Well, you have my heartiest wishes, Hugh.” Then he added, after a moment’s hesitation: “Strangely enough, I, too, have to make a similar announcement.”