"My darling!" he cried, "my whole life is yours. Even if you still refuse to marry me, I can never again love another after loving you. But what did you mean by those cruel words you spoke before? You told me to go from you, never to see you again. You said love between us was altogether impossible. You do not still think that? Oh, tell me, Mary. It is cruel to leave me in this fearful suspense." She looked down on the ground and said mournfully, "I don't know--indeed I don't know." "But it is not so impossible now as it was then?" he cried eagerly. "No! it is not," she said in a low voice speaking to herself rather than to him. Then an infinite joy rushed into the man's soul, and his eyes sparkled and his cheek flushed. He had come down here in an almost hopeless spirit; he remembered how emphatic she had been before in refusing his love--with what horror and vague hints of an impassable barrier between them she had rejected him--and, lo! now she had allowed that his heart's sole desire was no longer impossible of attainment--there was hope for him, nay more, there was certain victory! He raised her face to his and kissed her passionately on her mouth and eyes. This time she did not tear herself away from his embrace, but remained in his arms trembling. He released her and gazed with keen delight at her beautiful flushed face. She was frightened at his passion, and was filled with wonder that he should feel thus towards her. She understood how she or any woman could love this good and noble man; but why should he worship in this way one so unworthy as her! He must surely have mistaken her true nature; she must in some way have unwittingly deceived him. "Then I may hope to make you my wife?" he asked in a voice of ecstacy. She lowered her eyes again. "You ought not to make _me_ your wife. You deserve a good woman," then she continued timidly in a low voice that was delicious to him, "Would it make you much happier, dear?" "Dear!" How that word coming from her lips for the first time stirred him! "Happier!" he cried. "Oh, my darling! my darling!" A blush half of joy, half of shame, again suffused her cheeks, and she said, "For your sake, to make you happy, I would do all you willed; but still--still--I doubt very much--whether I should make you happier if I consented to be your wife." "I have no doubt at all about it, my darling," he exclaimed; "but I don't want you to marry me, to please _me_ only;" then looking at her face he was satisfied on that point and said no more. He seized her hand, and they walked on through the green woods hand in hand, now conversing in low tones, now in happy silence.