"Naomi," he said, a new note in his voice, "I think I am right in believing that, notwithstanding this regret, you do not in your heart wish to leave me ?" She quivered, and hid her face in silence.
He waited a few seconds, and finally went on as if she had answered in the affirmative.
"That being so, I have a foundation on which to build.

I would not ask of you anything which you feel unable to grant.

But there is only one way for us to get out of the circle that I can see.

Will you take it with me, Naomi?
Shall we go away together, and leave this miserable estrangement behind us ?" His voice was low and tender.

Yet she felt instinctively that he had not found it easy to expose his most sacred reserve thus.