"Ah, think it not! In time, I swear, you shall not think it.

For you shall come to love me, Ruth," he added with a note of such assurance that she turned to meet again his gaze.
He answered the wordless question of her eyes.

"There is," said he, "no love of man for woman, so that the man be not wholly unworthy, so that his passion be sincere and strong, that can fail in time to arouse response." She smiled a little pitiful smile of unbelief.

"Were I a boy," he rejoined, his earnestness vibrating now in a voice that was usually so calm and level, "offering you protestations of a callow worship, you might have cause to doubt me.

But I am a man, Ruth--a tried, and haply a sinful man, alas!--a man who needs you, and who will have you at all costs." "At all costs ?" she echoed, and her lip took on a curl.