"I ask nothing more or better, Uncle Ranny," she pressed my hands with quick intense little movements, "than to be near you, to work and to—to serve you—that is all I ask in the world!" Almost I had committed the unpardonable sin—almost I had taken advantage of her mood and of her grief, taken her to my heart and poured out the words of love that a hundred, hundred times had overflowed my heart and clamored for utterance. A pretty head of a family, a fine protector of the young I should then have been! With a tremulous movement I put both her hands together between my own and whispered to her lest my voice should betray me. "That is exactly what I want you to do, my dearest girl—live quietly and happily near me, be happy until the—the supreme happiness comes to you—until—" I added with a painful laugh, "the Prince in the fairy tale—comes along—to claim you." It was the hardest utterance of my life, but I felt a flash of triumph to have uttered it. "The Prince in the fairy tale," Alicia repeated slowly, looking rapt before her, "he came long ago—I have had more than I deserve—so much, so much, that I often tremble to think of it. All the Prince and all the fairy tale I want, or shall ever want." For one instant I thrilled from head to foot. A darkness filled my being for a moment and then it was rayed and forked by the lightnings of a strange intoxication. "You can’t mean, Alicia," I breathed huskily from a parched throat, "you—that it is me—that you—" And I knew instantaneously that all the restraint and resolutions had been swept aside—that after all I was as weak and weaker than the boy Randolph. For I had spoken without the iota of a wish to resist my desires! Slowly, very slowly, she drew closer to me so that her sweet breath of violets was warm and fragrant on my cheek. My head swam. "Ever since I came to you;" she breathed ever so softly, "ever since I was fifteen you have filled my thoughts, my heart, my life. I have—loved you always." The blood roared in my ears. I was filled with madness. But too long had I doubted happiness to receive it with open arms. I had made a stranger of it as does a miser by keeping his wealth hidden away. "Think what you are saying, Alicia," I took her face convulsively in both my hands. "I have loved you beyond anything on earth, beyond life itself. I have dreamed of you, dwelt upon you until I am mad. Do you really mean you can love me—as a man? After all those foolish years of hiding and suffering? Is that what you mean, or is it just—Uncle Ranny?" "Yes—that is what I mean, my Prince of the fairy tale," she whispered, hiding her face against mine—"if you’ll take me!" My senses reeled and swooned. She was tightly gripped in my arms. I was straining her to my heart. The months, the years of love hunger charged through my veins and sinews like an inexorable force, remorseless, irresistible.