“Nor pity for my patience? I've only done a little yet, and I am as far as ever from being like your hero. I can work and wait still longer if you are not sure, for I must have all or nothing.” “Oh, Mac! Why will you be so doubtful? You said you'd make me love you, and you've done it. Will you believe me now?” And, with a sort of desperation, she threw herself into his arms, clinging there in eloquent silence while he held her close; feeling, with a thrill of tender triumph, that this was no longer little Rose, but a loving woman, ready to live and die for him. “Now I'm satisfied!” he said presently, when she lifted up her face, full of maidenly shame at the sudden passion which had carried her out of herself for a moment. “No don't slip away so soon. Let me keep you for one blessed minute and feel that I have really found my Psyche.” “And I my Cupid,” answered Rose, laughing, in spite of her emotion, at the idea of Mac in that sentimental character. He laughed, too, as only a happy lover could, then said, with sudden seriousness: “Sweet soul! Lift up your lamp and look well before it is too late, for I'm no god, only a very faulty man.” “Dear love! I will. But I have no fear, except that you will fly too high for me to follow, because I have no wings.” “You shall live the poetry, and I will write it, so my little gift will celebrate your greater one.” “No you shall have all the fame, and I'll be content to be known only as the poet's wife.” “And I'll be proud to own that my best inspiration comes from the beneficent life of a sweet and noble woman.” “Oh, Mac! We'll work together and try to make the world better by the music and the love we leave behind us when we go.” “Please God, we will!” he answered fervently and, looking at her as she stood there in the spring sunshine, glowing with the tender happiness, high hopes, and earnest purposes that make life beautiful and sacred, he felt that now the last leaf had folded back, the golden heart lay open to the light, and his Rose had bloomed. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rose in Bloom, by Louisa May Alcott