"Yes, I--for I am happy--think of it, happy! Peter, I love you so much." She wept, her head upon his shoulder. "Keep me for a moment, only a moment longer. As I am wicked, let me have the good of it. I am glad that you love me. No; don't kiss me. Tell me again that you have loved me for a long time." "From the moment I saw you again, I think. I knew it when I began meeting you after your lessons. Do you remember that first day in the rain? I do; and your little hat with the bow on it, the hole in your little glove, your white little face. I went away to the South because I could not trust myself with you. I did not dream that you loved me, but I felt--ah! I felt--that I could have made you love me!" "And yet--you loved Katherine!" The anguish of the broken words pierced him. "Hilda, you cannot find me baser than I find myself. I did not love her." "Peter! Peter!" "Believe me, my precious child, when I tell you that you are the only one--my only love!" "O Peter!" "I never thought that I loved Katherine, but I had no fear of injustice to her, for I never thought that love would come into my life; and, hardly was the cruel stupidity consummated, when the truth crept upon me. Friendly comradeship on the one hand, and on the other--O Hilda!--a passion that has transformed my life. The truth fell upon you like a thunderbolt; my love for you crashed in upon your heavenly dreaming; but you see--be brave enough to acknowledge what it all means, your dream and my love that needed no thunderbolt to wake it,--be brave enough to own that it is inevitable, that from the time that you put your hand in mine ten years ago, dated that rarest, that divinest thing, a love, a sympathy infinite. Dear child, be brave enough to own that before it, mistakes may be put aside without dishonor." "Peter, Peter, let me go. Without dishonor! We are both already dishonorable, and oh! it is that that breaks my heart; that you, that you who should have helped me, protected me from the folly of my ignorance, that you should be dishonorable!" "O Hilda!" "Yes," she said wildly, "yes, yes, Peter; and I am wicked--wicked, for I love you. Yes--kiss me; there, now I am thoroughly wicked. Now let me go." Odd, white and shaken, still locked his arms about her. "I was base if you will, too base for your loveliness; but you, my darling, have not a shadow on you; you were impossibly noble. Remember, that if there is dishonor, I am dishonored, not you; remember that _I_ have done this!" As he spoke, holding Hilda in his arms, the door opened and Katherine entered. CHAPTER XI Katherine closed the door swiftly behind her and looked at them, not with a horror of surprise for the betrayal, but a strange, stiffened look. She had on her travelling hat and coat, a wrap on her arm, and the thumping of her boxes was heard outside on the stairs. Katherine had schemed and success was hers, but this unlooked-for achievement struck her like a dagger and made triumph bitter.