If I had known, I should not have caused you so much grief." She raised her head from his shoulder.
"What is it that you know ?" she asked, quickly.
He thereupon proceeded to tell her, in tenderest words of reverence, what, in his opinion, was the mystical cause, unsuspected, perhaps, even by herself, of her unconquerable repugnance to the idea of being his wife, truly as he knew she loved him.

He blamed himself that he had not recognized the sacred instinct which had held her back, but in his selfish blindness had gone on urging her to do violence to her nature.
Now that his eyes were opened he would not grieve her any more.

Her love alone should satisfy and bless him.

Earthly passion should no more vex her serenity.
When he first began to speak she had regarded him with evident astonishment.

As the meaning of his words became clear to her she had turned her face away from him and covered it with both her hands, as a person does under an overpowering sense of shame.