"You will help me in my flower garden, and sing with me in the evening, as of old." "Evelyn," he said, "if what I am about to say to you distresses you, lift your hand, and I will cease to speak.

Since a day and an hour in the woods yonder, I have been thinking much.

I wish to wipe that hour from your memory as I wipe it from mine, and to begin afresh.

You are the fairest woman that I know, and the best.

I beg you to accept my reverence, homage, love; not the boy's love, perhaps; perhaps not the love that some men have to squander, but _my_ love.