Page:Frank Packard - Greater Love Hath No Man.djvu/285

 tears, but there was brave control and quiet resolve in her voice.

"I do not think you understand," she said steadily. "You must go soon—now—but not alone"

He looked at her startled, reading her eyes, searching her face.

"Janet!" he cried. "You mean—you mean that you will marry me, that when I go you—" "Will go too," she said resolutely.

With a strange, slow movement Varge shook his head.

"You do not know what you are saying," he said numbly. "I, who am convicted of a crime of which I cannot even tell you I am innocent; I, who—"

"My heart told me that long ago," she interrupted him. "I have thought of it since that morning in the garden here, since that afternoon on the beach—you could not tell me then, and I do not ask it now—I shall never ask it. If it is a sacrifice that involves other lives, as I know it must be, if it seals your lips so that you can never speak, at least it shall not take from us all happiness—the love that God has given us."

"My name"—his head was bowed, his voice dull. "Have you forgotten that I do not even know who I am—that I have no name but Varge—that I can never hope to find another?"

"Would it be a prouder one?" she said, a quiver in the full throat as she lifted her head. "A prouder name than Varge—just Varge—because you have made it what it is."

"You love me so?" he murmured brokenly.

"Is my love greater than yours that risked more than life to-night that for a few minutes you might be near