“Now,” he answered. “Now--what can I tell you? If I were to be cut off from life and happiness now, I should stand before God and say that I have had all the happiness that can be joined to one life on earth. I have had that one hour with you, and no God or man can take it from me: I have lived that hour, and none can make me unlive it. I told you I would say no word of love to you then, but I have come to say the word now. Child, I dared not love you as I was--I had no thought worthy to be devoted to loving you. God knows how I struggled with all my soul to keep myself from doing you the injustice of thinking of you; but that hour at your feet has given me something of your divine nature, and with that which I have caught from you, I can love you. Daireen, will you take the love I offer you? It it yours--all yours.” He was not speaking passionately, but when she looked up and saw his face haggard with earnestness she was almost frightened--she would have been frightened if she had not loved him as she now knew she did. “Speak,” he said, “speak to me--one word.” “One word?” she repeated. “What one word can I say?” “Tell me all that is in your heart, Daireen.” She looked up to him again. “All?” she said with a little smile. “All? No, I could never tell you all. You know a little of it. That is the bond between us.” He turned away and actually took a few steps from her. On his face was an expression that could not easily have been read. But in an instant he seemed to recover himself. He took her hand in his. “My darling,” he said, “the Past has buried its dead. I shall make myself worthy to think of you--I swear it to you. You shall have a true man to love.” He was almost fierce in his earnestness, and her hand that he held was crushed for an instant. Then he looked into her face with tenderness. “How have you come to answer my love with yours?” he said almost wonderingly. “What was there in me to make you think of my existence for a single instant?” She looked at him. “You were--_you_,” she said, offering him the only explanation in her power. It had seemed to her easy enough to explain as she looked at him. Who else was worth loving with this love in all the world, she thought. He alone was worthy of all her heart. “My darling, my darling,” he said, “I am unworthy to have a single thought of you.” “You are indeed if you continue talking so,” she said with a laugh, for she felt unutterably happy. “Then I will not talk so. I will make myself worthy to think of you by--by--thinking of you. For a month, Daireen,--for a month we can only think of each other. It is better that I should not see you until the last tatter of my old self is shred away.” “It cannot be better that you should go away,” she said. “Why should you go away just as we are so happy?” “I must go, Daireen,” he said. “I must go--and now. I would to God I could stay! but believe me, I cannot, darling; I feel that I must go.”