But Love is blindest just when the bandage is being removed from his forehead.
'Then you will not give it me, Rose?
Do you think I shall go about boasting "This is Miss Jocelyn's handkerchief, and I, poor as I am, have won it" ?' The taunt struck aslant in Rose's breast with a peculiar sting.

She stood up.
'I will give it you, Evan.' Turning from him she drew it forth, and handed it to him hurriedly.

It was warm.

It was stained with his blood.

He guessed where it had been nestling, and, now, as if by revelation, he saw that large sole star in the bosom of his darling, and was blinded by it and lost his senses.
'Rose! beloved!' Like the flower of his nightly phantasy bending over the stream, he looked and saw in her sweet face the living wonders that encircled his image; she murmuring: 'No, you must hate me.' 'I love you, Rose, and dare to say it--and it 's unpardonable.