“I have trusted you with my immortal soul. You know this.” “Yes, yes, dear, I do. Then you can love and trust me without a letter or a word between us until Mama is better and I can get her consent to write to you? Oh, I never knew how tenderly and desperately I love you until this shadow came over our lives! No power shall ever separate us when the final test comes, unless you shall grow weary.” “Do not say that,” he interrupted. “I love you with a love that has brought me out of the shadows and shown me the face of God. Death shall not bring weariness. But I dread with a sickening fear the efforts they will make to plunge you into the whirl of frivolous society. I shall be a lonely beggar a thousand miles away with not one friendly face near you to plead my cause.” “Hush!” she broke in upon him. “You are for me the one living presence. You are always near--oh so near, closer than breathing!” The roar of the train became sonorous with the vibration of a great bridge. He started and looked at his watch. “We are more than half way to the stop where I must leave you and return.” “How long have you been here?” “Over a half hour. It does not seem two minutes. Only a few minutes more face to face, and all life crowding for utterance! How can I choose what to say, when my tongue only desires to say _I love you!_ Bend near and whisper to me again your love vow,” he cried in trembling accents. Close to his ear she placed her lips, holding fast his hand whispering again and again, “My own dear love--unto the uttermost. In life, in death, forever!” He bent again and pressed his lips on her hand and she felt the hot tears. “And now, love, comes the hardest thing of all,” she sobbed, “I must return to you my ring.” “For God’s sake keep it!” he pleaded. “No, I promised Mama for peace sake I would return it. She is very weak. I could not dare to hurt her now with a broken promise. She may not live long. I could never forgive myself. Keep it for me, dear, until I can wear it.” She placed it in his hand and it burnt like a red hot coal. He placed it in an inside pocket next to his heart. It felt like a huge millstone crushing him. A lump rose in his throat and choked him until he gasped for breath. She looked at him pathetically and saw his anguish. “Come, my love,” she pleaded reproachfully, “you must not make it harder for me. You are a man. You are stronger than I am. Love is more my whole life than it can be yours. For this cruel thing I have said and done, you may press on my lips another kiss. If I am disobedient to my mother’s wishes God will forgive me.” The train blew the long deep call for its hundred mile stop and they both rose, he took her hands in his. “You have promised not to write to me, dear, but I have made no promise. I will write to you as often as I can send you a cheerful message,” he said. “It is so sweet of you!” “You have the little love-token still?” he asked.