Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/159

Rh "But is this not exactly what you are trying to do? Has not William been true to me all these years, as I to him? And has any one, even you my rescuer, the right to come between us now?"

"Love cannot be bound," pleaded Dana. "If you are only true to him from a feeling of honour, which I know you would entertain, I do ask you most solemnly to think of the desperate cruelty to me if you marry a man to whom you are bound by an old promise, and reject one who without any promises made or received would throw his life and soul at your feet. I believe if you were free from this bond, which can have no force after four years' separation, you would choose me, and not Gell, who does not—who cannot love you half as much."

"Oh Richard," cried she, "it is you that are cruel. William does love me as much and more than you do. You don't know the depth of his feeling. If I were to be carried off to America again to-morrow and never see him again he would still be true to me to the last day of his life. While you, deep in love as you think yourself, after a couple of years would marry some nice good girl, and persuade yourself you had never been in love before."