Perhaps all this is but a boy's fancy, to pass with boyhood.' 'It will never pass, Lily.

They say that our first loves are the longest, and that which is sown in youth will flourish in our age.
Listen, Lily; I have my place to make in the world, and it may take a time in the making, and I ask one promise of you, though perhaps it is a selfish thing to seek.

I ask of you that you will be faithful to me, and come fair weather or foul, will wed no other man till you know me dead.' 'It is something to promise, Thomas, for with time come changes.

Still I am so sure of myself that I promise--nay I swear it.

Of you I cannot be sure, but things are so with us women that we must risk all upon a throw, and if we lose, good-bye to happiness.' Then we talked on, and I cannot remember what we said, though these words that I have written down remain in my mind, partly because of their own weight, and in part because of all that came about in the after years.
And at last I knew that I must go, though we were sad enough at parting.
So I took her in my arms and kissed her so closely that some blood from my wound ran down her white attire.