"Forgive me--forgive me!" he pleaded, and he ventured to touch her arm. "I have--startled you; you did not expect--it was unfair to bring you here. But I can't take it back. I love you with all my heart and soul. See, Nell--you will let me call you that? It's the name I love above all others--the name I think of you by. I--I won't harass you. You--you shall have time to think. I will go away for--for a few days--and you shall think over----No, no!" he broke off, springing to his feet and bending over her with a sudden passion which swept all before it. "I can't go. I can't leave you again, unless--unless I go forever. I must have your answer now--now! Speak to me, Nell. 'Yes' or 'No'?" He drew her hands from her face as she rose, and her eyes were lifted and met his. Love's sweet surrender shone in them; and, with a cry of wonder and joy, he caught her to him. "Nell, Nell!" was all that he could say. "Is it true? You--you love me, Nell?" She hid her face on his breast, and her hands trembled on his shoulders. "Yes--yes," she breathed, almost inaudibly. Then: "Do I?" CHAPTER XIII. He took her face in his hands and turned it up to him, but paused as her lips nearly met his. "Do you? Why, don't you know, dearest?" he asked tenderly. "Yes, ah! yes, I do," she said, and the tears sprang to her eyes as their lips met. "It was because I loved you that I was so sorry when you went; that every hour and day was a misery to me, and seemed to hang like lead; it was because I loved you that I could not think of anything else, and--and all the world became black and dark, and--and--I hated to be alive. It was because--because of that, was it not?" He answered with the lover's mute language. "And--and you love me! It seems so wonderful!" she murmured, looking at him with her eyes, now deep as violets and dewy with her tears. "So wonderful! Why--why do you?" He laughed--the laugh that for the first time in his life had left his lips. "Have you no looking-glass in your room, Nell?" he asked. "You beautiful angel! But not only because you are the loveliest----" She put her hand to his lips, her face crimson; but he kissed it and laid it against his cheek. --"You are not only the loveliest woman I know, but the sweetest, Nell," he said. "No man could help loving you." "How foolish!" she breathed; but, ah! the joy, the innocent pride that shone in her eyes! "You must have met, known, hundreds of beautiful women. I never thought that I--that any one could care for me----"