Eve gave a long sigh. "I have been so unhappy--" "Never again, I hope," said Paul; "from this moment I take charge of you. We will be married as soon as possible; we will go to Charleston." "Don't let us talk of that. Just love me here;--- now." "Well--don't I?" said Paul, smiling. He found a little nook between two spurs of the thicket which had invaded the beach; here he made a seat for her with a fragment of wreck which had been washed up by the sea. "Let us stay here all day," she said, longingly. "You will have me all the days of your life," said Paul. He had seated himself at her feet. "We shall have to live in Port aux Pins for the present; you won't mind that, I hope?" She drew his head down upon her breast. "How I have loved you!" "I know it," he said, flushing. "It was that which made me love you." He rose (it was not natural to Paul to keep a lowly position long), and, taking a seat beside her, lifted her in his arms. "I'm well caught," he murmured, looking down upon her with a smile. "Who would ever have supposed that you could sway me so?" "Oh," cried Eve, breaking away from him, "it's of no use; my one day that I counted on--my one short day--I cannot even dare to take that! Good women have the worst of it; if I could pretend that I was going to marry you, all this would be right; and if I could pretend nothing, but just _take_ it, then at least I should have had it; a remembrance for all the dreary years that have got to come. Instead of that, as I have been brought up a stupid, good woman, I _can't_ change--though I wish I could! I shall have to tell you the truth: I can never marry you; the sooner we part, then, the better." She turned and walked northward towards the Romney road. With a stride Paul caught up with her. "What are you driving at?" "I shall never marry you." He laughed. She turned upon him. "You laugh--you have no idea what it is to me! I think of you day and night, I have longed to have you in my arms--on my heart. No, don't touch me; it is only that I won't have you believe that I don't know what love is, that I don't love you. Why, once at Port aux Pins, I walked miles at night because I was so mad with jealousy; and I found you playing whist! If I could only have known beforehand--if I could only have seen you once, just once, Ferdie might have done what he chose with Cicely; I shouldn't have stirred!" "Yes, you would," said Paul. "No, I shouldn't have stirred; you might as well know me as I am. What I despise myself for now is, that I haven't the force to make an end of it, to relieve you of the thought of me--at least as some one living. But as long as you are alive, Paul--" She looked at him with her eyes full of tears. "You don't know what you are talking about," said Paul, sternly. "You will live, and as my wife; we will be married here at Romney to-morrow." "Would you really marry me _here_?" said Eve, the light of joy coming into her wan face.