"
She hung upon his words, and an involuntary sigh, born of the
intensity of the moment, trembled on her lips.
"I have spoken to you," he said, after what seemed a long silence,
"with a sincerity which was the due return for your own. I could
have shown myself in a more pleasing light. You see how little able
I am to help you; the centre-thought of your being is wholly strange
to me. And for all that--may I speak my thought?--we are nearer
to each other than before."
"Yes, nearer," she repeated, under her breath.
"You think that? You feel that? I have not repelled you?"
"You have not"
"And if I stood before you, now, as you know me--egotistic,
sceptical, calm--and told you that you are the only being in whom
I have ever felt complete confidence, whose word and thought I felt
to be one; that you exercise more power over me than any other ever
did or shall; that life in your companionship might gain the unity I
long for; that in your presence I feel myself face to face with a
higher and nobler nature than my own, one capable of sustaining me
in effort and leading me to great results--"
He became silent, for her face had turned deadly pale. But this
passed, and in her eyes, as they met his, trouble grew to a calm
joy.
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