And I don't know but what it may still be there.

There lies my weakness--I tell it you plainly and honestly; but at the same time I can't give you up, Elizabeth.
"I have always seen," he continued, "that the proper husband for you would have been a man who was something in the world--such a one as he, and not a man of no position like me.

In my pride I never could bear the thought--and it is that that has made me so full of rancour against all the world, and so suspicious and bad towards you.

I have not been strong enough--not like you--but I can truly say I have struggled with my weakness, Elizabeth," he said, pale with intensity of feeling, and laying both his hands on her shoulders, and looking into her face.
She felt that his arms were trembling, and her eyes filled with tears--it went to her heart to see him like this.

All at once on a sudden thought she withdrew herself from his hands and went into the little room adjoining the one they were in, and opened a drawer there.
She came out with the old note in her hand and held it out to him-- "That is the letter I wrote to the lieutenant the night I left the Becks'." He looked at her a little wonderingly.
"Fru Beck gave it to me," she said.