"
He clasped her close and kissed her.
"Yes!"
She had no sooner said it than she burst into a dry hard sobbing, so
violent that it seemed to rend her. Tess was not a hysterical girl
by any means, and he was surprised.
"Why do you cry, dearest?"
"I can't tell--quite!--I am so glad to think--of being yours, and
making you happy!"
"But this does not seem very much like gladness, my Tessy!"
"I mean--I cry because I have broken down in my vow! I said I would
die unmarried!"
"But, if you love me you would like me to be your husband?"
"Yes, yes, yes! But O, I sometimes wish I had never been born!"
"Now, my dear Tess, if I did not know that you are very much excited,
and very inexperienced, I should say that remark was not very
complimentary. How came you to wish that if you care for me? Do you
care for me? I wish you would prove it in some way."
"How can I prove it more than I have done?" she cried, in a
distraction of tenderness. "Will this prove it more?"
She clasped his neck, and for the first time Clare learnt what an
impassioned woman's kisses were like upon the lips of one whom she
loved with all her heart and soul, as Tess loved him.
"There--now do you believe?" she asked, flushed, and wiping her eyes.
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