But the moment I had uttered it I perceived what I had done, for she drew back further, gazing at me with inquiring eyes, and her breath seemed arrested.

Then, answering the question in her eyes, I said simply: "For what else am I here, Marie ?" and I caught her hand in my left hand.
She stood motionless, still silently asking what I would.

And I kissed her hand.

And again the low cry, lower still--half a cry and half a sigh--came from her, and she drew timidly nearer to me; and I drew her yet nearer, whispering, in a broken word or two, that I loved her.
But she, still dazed, looked up at me, whispering, "When, when ?" And I could not tell her when I had come to love her, for I did not know then--nor can I recollect now; nor have I any opinion about it, save that it speaks ill for me that it was not when first I set my eyes upon her.
But she doubted, remembering that I had seemed fancy-struck with the little duchess, and cold, maybe stern, to her; and because, I think, she knew that I had seen her tempted.

And to silence her doubts, I kissed her lips.