And when I
come back"--her voice was stronger, fuller now--"I am going to make you
see it just as plainly as you ever saw anything in all your life!"
"You must! I couldn't bear it to be shut out from your work."
"You are not going to be shut out from my work!"--she said it with an
intensity almost stern.
"I want your life to be happy, Ernestine," he said, after a time, and the
words seemed to have a new meaning spoken out of this mood of very deep
tenderness. "I don't want it to be darkened. I want my love to make you
happy--in spite of it all."
"It does," she breathed,--"it does."
"But I want you to be--as you used to be! I haven't been fair in letting
this make such a difference with us."
"Karl--how can you talk like that, when you have been so--splendid?"
"But you see I don't want to be splendid," he said whimsically. "I'd
rather be a brute than be splendid. And I want you to love me always as
you did at first--just because you couldn't help yourself."
"I can not help myself now," she laughed.
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