Page:Frank Packard - Greater Love Hath No Man.djvu/286

 me?" she asked, with a little sob. "Yes; I love you so. I do not know how great my love is, I only know that it is the greatest thing in my life—that you shall not go and face the terrible future that you are thinking of alone." She had drawn closer to him, and now her arms had crept around his neck and tightened there.

"No, no!" he burst out desperately. "I cannot—I must not!"

"Yes," she said passionately. "You must—there is no other way. You could not live alone through those years, they would be too terrible, too cruel—but together we will make another future for ourselves somewhere—and you will be happy—and it is my happiness too—we will find happiness together. I—I think that I should die if you left me here."

Find happiness! Make another future for themselves! It was like a glimpse of Heaven! Happiness—ah, yes, there would be happiness—and his life had been clean—if there was a stain upon his name there was none upon his soul—and it was God-given, this pure love of theirs, as she had said—and there was no other way—the barriers were down, torn down through no voluntary will of his—nothing could change that now—and they were each other's—for all of life.

"Listen, Varge"—her arms still clung around his neck, but her face was raised to his. "The time is going and it is so precious—every minute is so precious to us now—we must not lose a single one. You know the bridge over the creek? You must go there by the fields. I have a few things I must get together, but it will take you longer going that way than it will take me by the road. I will meet you there, and a little further on there