He had told her that she was his, as his arm was round her; and she had acknowledged that it was so, that she belonged to him, and could not be taken away from him.

All this was to her a compact so sacred that nothing could break it but a desire on his part to have it annulled.
No other man had ever whispered a word of love to her, of no other man had an idea entered her mind that it could be pleasant to join her lot in life with his.

With her it had been all new and all sacred.

Love with her had that religion which nothing but freshness can give it.

That freshness, that bloom, may last through a long life.