To-day I could not help it, whatever you might think of me, or whatever I might think of myself.

I could not bear to worry any longer, lest you might be unhappy because you thought I did not love you.

I do, and you need not stay away any more for that." "Lucina--you don't mean--" "Do you think I would have let you--do as you did a minute ago, if I had not ?" said she, and a blush spread over her face and neck.
"I--thought--it was all--me--that--_you_--did not--" "No, I let you," whispered Lucina.
"Oh, you don't mean that you--like me this same way that I do you--enough to marry me! You don't mean that ?" "Yes, I do," replied Lucina; she looked up at him with a curious solemn steadfastness.

She was not blushing any more.
"I--never thought of this," Jerome said, drawing a long, sobbing breath.

He stood looking at her, his face all white and working.
"Lucina," he began, then paused, for he could not speak.