Page:Far from the Maddening Girls.djvu/215

 trees, and fell in a marvellous mosaic on the windings of the familiar road. The world was as still as some vast chapel.

“I love you more than the very breath of life itself,” said I, as steadily as I could for the beating of my heart. “Will you marry me?”

She turned sharply at the words, with her head thrown back and her cheeks blazing.

“Oh, is that kind?” she cried. “Is it fair? Is it possible you didn’t understand what it might have meant to have given him a different answer? And you would take advantage — oh, shame! You would take advantage of — of my lie!”

“Oh, my dearest,” I broke in, “it was too beautiful to be a lie. It was truth for Darius. Will you not make it truth for me?”

And I held out my arms to her.

A hundred and ninety years later, or seven minutes — I forget which — I made a confession.