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198 a little nervous, then he looked at me with that sweet, tender look that I had seen in his eyes when he leaned over me as I woke from my deep faint.

"I remained away only to control my desire to come again and again," he whispered.

"Then am I to understand that because you have come now, you wish never to come again?"

"That would be making a mistake again," he replied, smiling sadly, and then as I did not speak, after a pause he began again:

"Circumstances have changed since I first met you. You were then engaged to be married. That is all over now, that is why"

Again he was silent, while I stood with throbbing heart, the perspiration breaking out upon my forehead. Was it really true? What did all this mean? He continued:

"That is why I have come to offer you my life, my soul, my being—the decision lies with you."

Can language describe the moments that followed? I felt myself lifted to the realms of ecstasy. All existence seemed merged