Afterwards Jean had many criticisms to make concerning the fashion of Robert's avowal--criticisms at which she would make him blush when his hair was grey; but at the moment she was conscious of one thing only-- that Robert was in torture and that she could ease him. With a smile which was divine in its abandon she held out her hands towards him. "But that's all I want," said Jean, trembling. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ They sat for an hour by the side of an old oak, the sunshine flickering through the branches on the illumined loveliness of Jean's face, on Robert's rapturous joy. Even to a cold, outside eye they would have appeared an ideal couple: what wonder that to each the other seemed the crowning miracle of the world! The perfect moment was theirs; the ineffable content, the amazement of joy which God in His mercy vouchsafes to all true lovers. The love lasts, but the glory wanes; of necessity it must wane in a material world, but the memory of it can never die. It lives to sweeten life, to be a memory of perfect union, a foretaste of the life beyond! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ They talked in the tongue of angels, in such words as can never be transcribed in print; they marvelled and soared, and then at last came down to facts. A shadow flitted across Robert's face; his voice took an anxious note. "I am a poor man, Jean. Until now I have not cared, but I'm grieved for your sake. I should like to have kept you like a queen, but I am poor, and I fear shall never be otherwise. We shall have to live in a small house with a couple of servants, and think twice of every sovereign we spend." "Shall we?" asked Jean absently. She was occupied in measuring her small white hand against Robert's sunburnt palm, and had no attention to spare for such minor details. Her own dress allowance of a hundred a year had invariably to be supplemented by an indulgent father, but it seemed to her a matter of supreme unimportance whether Robert were rich or poor. At that moment she would have received with equanimity the news that he was a huckster of goods, and that she would be expected to follow his barrow through the streets. Monetary conditions simply did not exist; but on another point there was no end to her exactions. "_How_ much do you love me?" "Beyond all words, and all measures, beyond the capacity of mortal man. That is why I feel a giant at this moment--a god! There's no room for my love in a man's poor frame." Jean dimpled deliriously. This was just as it should be, and such good hearing that it could bear endless repetition. "And am I the first? Have you never loved any one before?" "Not for a moment. The thought of marriage never entered my head. I thought I was far better off as I was. Oh, Jean, imagine it!" Jean smiled at him with shy, lovely eyes. "And never flirted, nor run after a pretty girl?"