The possibility of Teresa loving him had never occurred to his simple nature.

He bent his head and kissed her.

She was frightened, and unloosed her clinging arms; but he retained her hand, and said, "We will leave this accursed place, and you shall go with me as you said you would; nor need you ever leave me, unless you wish it." She could hear the beating of her own heart through his words; she longed to look at the eyes and lips that told her this, and read the meaning his voice alone could not entirely convey.

For the first time she felt the loss of her sight.

She did not know that it was, in this moment of happiness, the last blessing vouchsafed to her miserable life.
A few moments of silence followed, broken only by the distant rumor of the conflagration and the crash of falling boughs.
"It may be an hour yet," he whispered, "before the fire has swept a path for us to the road below.