To hear him say: "Nedda, I love you!" to feel it in his hand clasped on her heart was much more, now that she knew how difficult it was for him to say or show it, except in the dark with her alone.

Many a long day they might have gone through together that would not have shown her so much of his real heart as that hour of whispering and kisses.
He had known she was unhappy, and yet he couldn't! It had only made him more dumb! It was awful to be like that! But now that she knew, she was glad to think that it was buried so deep in him and kept for her alone.
And if he did it again she would just know that it was only shyness and pride.

And he was not a brute and a beast, as he insisted.

But suppose she had chanced not to come out! Would she ever have lived through the night?
And she shivered.
"Are you cold, darling?
Put on my coat." It was put on her in spite of all effort to prevent him.

Never was anything so warm, so delicious, wrapping her in something more than Harris tweed.