l know it. I shall be as proud then as Hamel, and as
happy,--happier, I think. It seems to me that no one can love as I
do now, Ayala; it has grown upon me from hour to hour as I have seen
you. When I first took you away to that dance it was so already. Do
you remember that night at the theatre,--when I had come away from
everything and striven so hard that I might be near to you before you
went back to your home? Ayala, I loved you then so dearly;--but not
as I love you now. When I saw you riding away from me yesterday, when
I could not get over the brook, I told myself that unless I might
catch you at last, and have you all to myself, I could never again be
happy. Do you remember when you stooped down and kissed that man's
baby at the farm-house? Oh, Ayala, I thought then that if you would
not be my wife,--if you would not be my wife,--I should never have
wife, never should have baby, never should have home of my own."
She walked on by his side, listening, but she had not a word to say
to him. It had been easy enough to her to reject and to rebuke and
to scorn Tom Tringle, when he had persisted in his suit; but she
knew not with what words to reject this man who stood so high in
her estimation, who was in many respects so perfect, whom she so
thoroughly liked,--but whom, nevertheless, she must reject. He was
not the Angel of Light,--could never be the Angel of Light. There
was nothing there of the azure wings upon which should soar the all
but celestial being to whom she could condescend to give herself and
her love. He was pleasant, good, friendly, kind-hearted,--all that
a friend or a brother should be; but he was not the Angel of Light.
She was sure of that. She told herself that she was quite sure of it,
as she walked beside him in silence along the path. "You know what
I mean, Ayala, when I tell you that I love you," he continued. But
still she made no answer. "I have seen at last the one human being
with whom I feel that I can be happy to spend my life, and, having
seen her, I ask her to be my wife. The hope has been dwelling with me
and growing since I first met you. Shall it be a vain hope? Ayala,
may I still hope?"

"No," she said, abruptly.

"Is that all?"

"It is all that I can say."

"Is that one 'no' to be the end of everything between us?"

"I don't know what else I ought to say to you, Colonel Stubbs."

"Do you mean that you can never love me?"

"Never," she said.

"That is a hard word,--and