“Know it?” he cried. “I know why I should stay. I know that I love you with my whole heart and soul. I know that I love you as few men have ever loved—and that you are the one woman among millions who can inspire such a love.”
“No, Bob, no,” she said, striving hard to keep her head, withdrawing her hand that it might not betray the treason of her lips. Aware, strange as it may seem, of the absurdity of the source of what she was to say, for a trace of a smile was about her mouth as she gazed at the coals. “You will get over this. You are not yet out of college, and many such fancies happen there.”
For the moment he was incapable of speaking, incapable of finding an answer sufficiently emphatic. How was he to tell her of the rocks upon which his love was built?
How was he to declare that the very perils which threatened her had made a man of him, with all of a man's yearning to share these perils and shield her from them? How was he to speak at all of those perils? He did not declaim, yet when he spoke, an enduring sincerity which she could not deny was in his voice.
“You know in your heart that what you say is not true, Cynthia. Whatever happens, I shall always love you.”
Whatever happens: She shuddered at the words, reminding her as they did of all her vague misgivings and fears.
“Whatever happens!” she found herself repeating them involuntarily.
“Yes, whatever happens I will love you truly and faithfully. I will never desert you, never deny you, as long as I live. And you love me, Cynthia,” he cried, “you love me, I know it.”
“No, no,” she answered, her breath coming fast. He was on his feet now, dangerously near her, and she rose swiftly to avoid him.
She turned her head, that he might not read the denial in her eyes; and yet had to look at him again, for he was coming toward her quickly. “Don't touch me,” she said, “don't touch me.”