“Who has been here--Mr. Westwood?” “Of course. Who else was there to come? Who else is worth talking about in the world? He has been here, and he loves me--he loves me--he loves me! Only think of it.” “And you sent him away?” “Not until I had told him all that was in my heart.” “You told him that you loved another man?” “How could I do that? How could I tell him a falsehood? I told him that I loved him; that I had always loved him, and that it would be impossible for me to love any one else.” CHAPTER XXV |NOW you know why it is I was crying,” said Clare, and as she spoke she laughed. “Oh, I am crying because I am the happiest girl in the world,” she continued. “Was there ever any one so fortunate in the world? I don't believe it. I thought that the idea of my hoping that he would ever come to love me was too ridiculous--and it is ridiculous, you know, when you think of it--when you think of me--me--a mere nobody--and of him--him--the man whose name is in every one's mouth. Ah! I think it must be some curious dream--no, I feel that I have read something like it somewhere--there is a memory of King Cophetua in the story. Was he here--was he really here? Why do you stare at me in that way? Ah, I suppose you think that I have suddenly gone mad? Well, I don't blame you. The whole story sounds absurd, doesn't it?” Agnes had taken a step or two back from the girl and was gazing at her. The expression that was on her face as she gazed had something of amazement in it and something of fear. Her lips moved as if she were trying to speak; but at first her words failed to come. When, at last, they became audible, there was a gasp between each word. “You said--you told me--twice--yes, twice--that you loved some one else--some one--Oh, my God! I never guessed that it was he--he”--“Why, who else should it be? When he came beside me aboard the steamer--yes, on the very first day we met--I knew that my fate was bound up with his.” “Fate--Fate--that was his word, too. Fate!” “I felt it. I felt that even if he had never thought of me I should still be forced to follow him till I died. And how strange it was--but then, everything about love is a mystery--he told me just now, in this very room, that he had just the same feeling. He said he felt that Fate”-- “Ah, Fate again--Fate!” “And why not? My dearest Agnes, there is a good Fate as well as an evil one. How unjust men are! When anything unhappy takes place, they cry out against Fate: but when anything good happens, they never think of giving Fate the credit of it! We are going to change all that. I have already begun. I feel that I could compose the Fate theme--something joyous--ah, what did I say the other evening?--something with trumpets in it--that is what my Fate theme would be: pæans of joy rushing through it.” “That is what the lover thinks, the lover who has not got the eyes of Fate--the eyes that see the end of the love and not merely the beginning.”