But he mastered his emotion by an effort.
"I'm afraid,"-- he said--"I'm afraid I should be no use to you in such a business,--you'd much better speak to her yourself--" "Why, of course I mean to speak to her myself,"-- interrupted Reay, warmly--"Don't be dense, David! You don't suppose I want _you_ to speak for me, do you?
Not a bit of it! Only before I speak, I do wish you could find out whether she likes me a little--because--because--I'm afraid she doesn't look upon me at all in _that_ light----" "In what light ?" queried Helmsley, gently.
"As a lover,"-- replied Angus--"She's given up thinking of lovers." Helmsley leaned back in his chair, and clasping his hands together so that the tips of his fingers met, looked over them in almost the same meditative businesslike way as he had looked at Lucy Sorrel when he had questioned her as to her ideas of her future.
"Well, naturally she has,"-- he answered--"Lovers have given up thinking of _her_!" "I hope they have!" said Angus, fervently--"I hope I have no rivals! For my love for her is a jealous love, David! I must be all in all to her, or nothing! I must be the very breath of her breath, the life of her life! I must!--or I am no use to her.

And I want to be of use.

I want to work for her, to look upon her as the central point of all my actions--the very core of ambition and endeavour,--so that everything I do may be well done enough to meet with her praise.

If she does not like it, it will be worthless.

For her soul is as pure as the sunlight and as full of great depths as the sea! Simplest and sweetest of women as she is, she has enough of God in her to make a man live up to the best that is in him!" His voice thrilled with passion as he spoke--and Helmsley felt a strange contraction at his heart--a pang of sharp memory, desire and regret all in one, which moved him to a sense of yearning for this love which he had never known--this divine and wonderful emotion whose power could so transform a man as to make him seem a very king among men.