Oh, my darling, I _do_ love you, I do love you so much, and you must be
always my generous, poetic _boy_, as you are now."
She strained his hands to her as though afraid he would slip from her
clasp. "All that is ideal so soon hardens. I can not bear to think of
your changing."
Bennington leaned forward and their lips met. "We will forgive him," he
murmured.
And what that remark had to do with it only our gentler readers will be
able to say.
Ah, the delicious throbbing silence after the first kiss!
"What was your decision that afternoon on the Rock, Ben? You never told
me." She asked presently, in a lighter tone, "Would you have taken me
in spite of my family?"
He laughed with faint mischief.
"Before I tell you, I want to ask _you_ something," he said in his
turn. "Supposing I had decided that, even though I loved you, I must
give you up because of my duty to my family--suppose that, I say--what
would _you_ have done? Would your love for me have been so strong that
you would have finally confessed to me the fact that the Lawtons were
not your parents? Or would you have thrown me over entirely because you
thought I did not love you enough to take you for yourself?"
She considered the matter seriously for some little time.
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