He loved her, then! Love, real love, was what it meant! It was paradise! Anything might come that would! She would be afraid of nothing any more.

They might say or do to her what they pleased--she did not care a straw, if he loved her--really loved her! And he did! he did! She was going to have him all to her own self, and nobody was to have any right to meddle with her more! "I didn't know you loved me, Tom!" she said, simply, with a little gasp.
"And I don't know yet whether you love me," returned Tom.
"Of course, if you love _me_," answered Letty, as if everybody must give back love for love.
Tom took her again in his arms, and Letty was in greater bliss than she had ever dreamed possible.

From being a nobody in the world, she might now queen it to the top of her modest bent; from being looked down on by everybody, she had the whole earth under her feet; from being utterly friendless, she had the heart of Tom Helmer for her own! Yet even then, eluding the barriers of Tom's arms, shot to her heart, sharp as an arrow, the thought that she was forsaking Cousin Godfrey.

She did not attempt to explain it to herself; she was in too great confusion, even if she had been capable of the necessary analysis.

It came, probably, of what her aunt had told her concerning her cousin's opinion of Tom.