Page:The traitor; a story of the fall of the invisible empire (IA traitorstoryoffa00dixo).pdf/215

 "I dare not tell you why I pause to ask the question. I've sometimes thought that an impassable gulf yawned between us. To-night I've thrown such rubbish to the winds. There's no gulf so wide, so deep and dark the heart of love may not leap it. Nothing matters save that I love you, that you smile and hear me!"

"I am honoured in your love," she answered gently.

"Ah! you can never know how sweet it is to hear that from your dear lips. I cannot tell you the madness of the joy that fills me, when I realise that I have found in you all I've ever dreamed of beauty, tenderness and purity. All the songs of life that poets dream and find no words in which to sing, I feel within. If you should send me from your presence now, I'd laugh at Death for I have tasted Life! To win your love is all I ask of this world or the next—You will let me try?"

"Yes," said the low voice, as she placed her hand again in his.

"Then I must go," he said, rising and lifting her from the seat—"I've said enough to-night. I must go before I dare say too much and break the spell of joy that holds me."

At the door he asked.

"I may come again to-morrow?"

"Yes, at eight."