"The way to win a girl is not thus. He should see her often, without
speaking of love, being everything to her, until at last she finds she
can not live without him."
"Have I been that to you, Mary? Has it come to that with me?" he asked
wistfully.
"Heaven help me, I am afraid it has!" she cried, burying her face in
her hands.
A great gladness leaped up into his face, and died as the blaze of a
fire leaps up and expires.
"That makes it easier--and harder," he said. "It is bad enough as it
is. I don't know how I can make you understand, dear."
"I understand more than you think," she replied, becoming calm again,
and letting her hands fall into her lap. "I am going to speak quite
plainly. You love me, Ben--ah, don't I know it!" she cried, with a
sudden burst of passion. "I have seen it in your eyes these many days.
I have heard it in your voice. I have felt it welling out from your
great heart. It has been sweet to me--so sweet! You can not know, no
man ever could know, how that love of yours has filled my soul and my
heart until there was room for nothing else in the whole wide world!"
"You love me!" he said wonderingly.
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