Do not answer me yet," he went on, his words gathering force as he spoke.

"Listen to what I have to tell you.

I have been a lonely man all my life.

At sea I was lonely, and since I have come into this fortune I have been lonelier still.

I never loved anybody or anything till I began to love you.
And then I loved you more and more and more; till now I have only one thought in all my life, and that thought is of you.