Laura loved him, and believed that his love for her was as pure and deep as her own.

She worshipped him and would have counted her life a little thing to give him, if he would only love her and let her feed the hunger of her heart upon him.
The passion possessed her whole being, and lifted her up, till she seemed to walk on air.

It was all true, then, the romances she had read, the bliss of love she had dreamed of.

Why had she never noticed before how blithesome the world was, how jocund with love; the birds sang it, the trees whispered it to her as she passed, the very flowers beneath her feet strewed the way as for a bridal march.
When the Colonel went away they were engaged to be married, as soon as he could make certain arrangements which he represented to be necessary, and quit the army.

He wrote to her from Harding, a small town in the southwest corner of the state, saying that he should be held in the service longer than he had expected, but that it would not be more than a few months, then he should be at liberty to take her to Chicago where he had property, and should have business, either now or as soon as the war was over, which he thought could not last long.