Page:Randall Parrish--My Lady of the South.djvu/347

OUR PLANS MISCARRY your complete freedom. You expect me to do this?"

"I suppose I do," regretfully; "but I would make any sacrifice to have it otherwise."

She was looking directly at me, her hand still in mine, her eyes gravely questioning.

"Do you really mean that?—really mean all you said to me before?"

"As God is my witness, Jean," I insisted soberly, "I do mean every word of it—I love you, earnestly, devotedly. There can be no evil in my saying this, even although I know the impossibility of your making any return. I can take no advantage of the relation between us; I claim no right to you, but I do confess my love, and I want you to know the truth. You cannot think less kindly of me for that?"

"No," the blue-gray of her eyes misty, her lips tremulous. "I—I am afraid I am so selfish as to be almost glad. Not—not that I wish you to love me; but—but it is someway a pleasure to know you care."

"Do you really mean—"

"Oh, no I don't take it that way. I ought not to have said this; I hardly know what I have said. All our acquaintance has been so strange as to leave me confused. I do like you. Lieutenant King, and I find it hard to part, yet nothing else is possible. You must go, and go at once, before the guard is changed. I pray you do not delay, do not linger here longer. I can say no more than I have said already; and your safety depends on departure at once."

It required all my power of will to comply, yet there [ 327 ]