But she would conquer such feelings--she would be his wife, and
drying her eyes she said, "I can give you my decision now as well
as at any other time, but if you prefer it, I will wait four weeks
and then bring you the same answer I make you now--I will be your
wife."
"I dare not hope it," returned Richard, "You will change your
mind, I fear, but, Edith, if you do not,--if you promise to be
mine, don't forsake me afterwards, for I should surely die," and
as if he already felt the agony it would cost him to give his
darling up after he had once possessed her, he clasped his hands
upon his heart, which throbbed so rapidly that Edith heard its
muffled beat and saw its rise and fall. "I could not lose you and
still live on without you, Edith," and he spoke impetuously, "You
won't desert me, if you promise once."
"Never, never," she answered, and with a good night kiss upon his
lips she went out from the presence of the man she already looked
upon as her future husband, breathing freer when she stood within
the hall where he was not, and freer still when in her own chamber
there was a greater distance between them.
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