iant without? You but pretend insensibility,
to hide real feeling."

"I did not say so," she answered, lightly, bracing herself again to
her resolution.

"But it is so, is it not?" he went on. "Your heart and mind are as
roseate and delicate as your face? You can understand my praises and
my feelings? You can value such love as mine aright, and know 'tis
worthy some repayment?"

But she was not again to be duped by low-spoken, fervid words, or by
wistful, glowing eyes. She must be sure of him.

"I know,--I recall now," she said, with little apparent interest; "you
spoke of love a week ago, with no less eloquence and ardor."

"More eloquence and ardor, I dare say, for then I did not feel love.
Then my tongue was not tied by sense of a passion it could not hope to
express one hundredth part of! And, even if my tongue had gift to tell
my heart, I should not dare trust myself under the sway of my
feelings. But I _do_ love you now,--I do,--I do!"

"If now, why not before?"

"Haven't I said I've been blind to you until to-night? At first I
regarded you as only an enemy to be turned to my use in my peril.
Having been fortunate in that, I gave myself to other thoughts. But,
thinking my false love had drawn true love from you, I saw I could not
in honor leave you under a false belief. But now the falsehood has
become truth. A week ago, I avowed a pretended passion, to gain my
life! Now, I declare a real one, to gain your love!"

"What, you expect to take my love by storm, in reality, as you did, in
appearance, a week ago?" She had risen from the music seat, and now
stood with her back against the spinet, her hands behind her, her head
turned slightly upward, facing him.

"I don't expect," said he. "I only hope."

"And what gives you reason to hope?"

"My own love for you. Love elicits love, they say."

"They say wrong, then. If that were true, there would be no unrequited
lovers."

"Ay, but such love as mine,--how can it so fill me to overflowing, and
not infect you?"

"Love is not an infectious disease. If it were, I should have no
fear,--knowing myself love-proof."

"I can't believe that,--for a woman with no spark in herself could not
light so fierce a flame in me, by the mere meeting of our eyes."

"If it should create in me such a disturbance as you seem to undergo,
I shouldn't wish it to increase. But, I assure you, it isn't in me."

"Pray think it is. Only imagine it is there, and soon it will be."