Maud had bent her head so low that he could not see her face. It was very cruel in him, but he deliberately took her chin in his hands, and gently but firmly turned her face up to his. Then, as he kissed the shamed eyes and furiously blushing cheeks, he dropped the tone of banter and said, with moist eyes, in a voice of solemn tenderness:-- “My brave darling, with all my life I will thank you for the words you spoke that night. But for them I might have missed the wife God meant for me.” End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Love Story Reversed, by Edward Bellamy