"No, not for us all--for you," he returned with insistence.

"That would be silly," said Leam quietly. "I am not the only person in
the world: you have your mother."

"For my mother, perhaps; but for the world, nothing. You are the world
to me," said Alick. "Give me your love, and I care for nothing else.
Tell me you will be my wife, and I can live then--live as nothing else
can make me. Leam, can you love me, dear? I have loved you from the
first moment I saw you. Will you be my wife?"

"Your wife!" cried Leam with an involuntary gesture of repulsion. "You
are dreaming."

"No, no: I am in full earnest. Tell me that you love me, Leam. Oh,
I believe that you do. Surely I have not deceived myself so far. Why
should you have come every day--every day, as you have done--if you do
not love me? Yes, you do--I know you, do. Say so, Leam, my darling, my
beloved, and put me out of my misery of suspense."

"You are my good friend: I love you like a friend; but a wife--that is
different," faltered Leam.

"Yes, but it will come if you try," pleaded Alick, shifting his point
from confidence to entreaty. "Won't you try to love me as I love you,
Leam? Won't you try to love me as a wife loves her husband?"

She turned away. "I cannot," she answered in a low voice, yet firm
and distinct. It was a voice in which even the most sanguine must have
recognized the accent of hopeless certainty, inevitable despair.

"Leam, it will be your salvation," cried Alick, taking her hands.
He meant her spiritual salvation, not her personal safety: it was a
prayer, not a threat.

"You would not force me by anything you may know?" asked Leam in the
same low, firm, distinct voice. "Not even for safety, Alick."

"Which I would buy with my own," he answered--"with my eternal
salvation."

"I am not worthy of such love," said Leam trembling. "And oh, dear
Alick, do not blame me, but I cannot return it," she added piteously.

She saw him start and heard him moan when she said this, but for a
moment he was silent. He seemed half stunned as if by a heavy blow,
but one that he was doing his best to bear. "Tell me so again, Leam.
Let me be convinced," he then said with pathetic calmness, looking
into her face. "You cannot love me?--never? never?"

"Never," she said, her voice breaking.

Alick covered his face in his hands, and she saw the tears trickle
slowly through his fingers. He made no com-plaint, no protestation,
only covered up his face