“Ah, you have no idea how these cares and distractions have injured my health!” he exclaimed. “Ever since I have known you, nothing but anxiety has been my lot. Yet deprivation of you would cause me to die or to go out of my mind. Only through you can I breathe or feel or see. Is it, then, wonderful that, when you are not with me, I fall ill? Without you everything is wearisome and distasteful. I feel like a machine, I walk and act without knowing ever what I am doing. Yes, I am like a machine whereof only you are the fuel, the motive power....” When she had gone he trod the floor as on air. “How clearly she sees life!” he reflected. “How unerringly from that book of wisdom is she able to divine her road!” Yes, his life and hers had been bound to come together like two rivers, for she, and only she, was his true guide and instructor. Next day there arrived a letter from the lawyer on his estate. He read it through--then let it slip from his fingers to the ground. The gist of the document was that his property was greatly involved, and that, if he wished matters to be set in order, he must hasten to take up his residence on the spot. “Then marriage is not to be thought of for at least another year,” he reflected with dismay. “First of all I shall need to complete my plans for the estate, and then to consult an architect, and then, and then----” He broke off with a sigh. IV Are you certain that nothing remains to you of your properly--that there is no hope of anything?” asked Olga a few days later. “Yes, I am certain,” he replied--then added with a touch of hesitation in his tone: “But perhaps within a year or so----” “Within a year or so you may be able to order your life and your affairs? Reflect a moment.” He sighed, for he was fighting a battle with himself, and the battle was reflected in his face. “Listen,” she went on. “Remember that you and I are no longer children, and that we are not jesting, and that the matter may affect our whole lives. Inquire sternly of your conscience, therefore, and tell me (for I know you, as well as trust you) whether you can stand by me your life long, and be to me all that I need? You know me as I know you: consequently you understand what it is that I am trying to say. Should you return me a bold, a considered ‘Yes,’ I will cancel a certain decision of mine--I will give you my hand, and together we will go abroad, or to your estate, or to the Veaborg Quarter.” “Ah, if you knew how much I love you!” he began. “I desire no protestations of love.--only a brief answer.” “Do not torture me, Olga,” he cried with weariness in his tone. “Then am I right in what I suppose?” she asked. “Yes--you are right,” was the firm, but significant, reply. There followed a long pause.