Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/163

 wife? He himself admitted that he realized how much he was asking her to give up.

"I am not going to let you answer me at once," he said, with the masterfulness she secretly loved. "You would refuse me off-hand, and we can't have that, you know, before you have given some thought to the attractions of this proposition." He was smiling, but she noticed that he was very pale.

"Let me say at once," he went on, "that there is no woman in the world for me but you. For years no woman has had more than a passing thought of mine. One did— when I was a young man. We were engaged, and she—changed her mind. It was a hard blow, but I got over it. Now I love you as a man loves in his mature manhood. There will never be another woman for me. I will make you happy. I will help you in your work. You shall live your own life—only let me share it. Let me put into it the love that should be in it—such love as no woman can afford to put away from her, no matter what else the world offers her. I have wealth and position equal to your own. Let us combine our opportunities and work together. Promise me you will think of it—that you will not turn me away without letting your heart speak for me. Think it over. That is all I ask—now."