He knew that he had waited all his life to meet Hermione--to meet her, and none other--and the thought that, having found her, having snatched her, as it were, from the sacrificial altar of a false god, he should now lose her, was inflicting exquisite agony.
Happily, this girl-wife of his was adorably feminine, and she decided without inquiry that she was the cause of his melancholy.
"Tell me, John," she said suddenly.

"I am brave.

I can bear it." The unexpected words stirred him from his disconsolate mood.
"Bear what, dear one ?" he asked, looking at her with the wistful eyes of Tantalus gazing at the luscious fruits which the wrathful winds wafted ever from his parched lips.
"You know that you have made a mistake, and have brought me out here to--to----" "Ah, dear Heaven!" he sighed; "if I had but the strength of will to adopt that subterfuge it might prove easier for you.

But one thing I cannot do, Hermione.

I refuse to set you free by means of a lie.