Page:Maud Howe - A Newport Aquarelle.djvu/239

 felt the need so terribly one of another. We are free agents, Gladys, you and I; either of us by our acts could—can—break the union by which they are still bound. Would you bargain with your soul, child, for the sake of things which are of this world only, and wrong your spirit, by a bond of the flesh which would sever it from mine forever?"

The young man spoke earnestly and seriously, in a low voice, passionless and grave. It was not with such words that in the old days her boy lover had wooed her, and Gladys looked at him wondering, and yet understanding dimly all he said.

"If I should never see your face again, Gladys, you would love me always; do you not know it?"

"Yes, Cid."

They were silent again for a space, and Gladys noticed the drooping willows before the little gray farm-house, which with its wide pasture-land, filled with great sleepy cattle, seems the scene which Corot must have