And I--am a
thief's sister, so please, please loose me--oh, have mercy and--let me
go."
His arms fell from her and, shivering, she sank beside the table, and
the pale agony of her face smote him.
"But you love me, Hermione?" he pleaded.
"If I had only known," she sighed, "I might not have learned to love
you--quite so much! If I had only known!" Her voice was soft and low,
her blue eyes wide and tearless, and because of this, he trembled.
"Hermione," said he gently, "all this week I have been planning for you
and Arthur. I have been dreaming of our life together, yours and mine,
a life so big, so wonderful, so full of happiness that I trembled,
sometimes, dreading it was only a dream. Dear, the gates of our paradise
are open; will you shut me out? Must I go back to my loneliness?"
"I shall be lonely, too!" she murmured brokenly. "But better, oh, far
better loneliness than that some day--" she paused, her lips quivering.
"Some day, Hermione?"
"You should find that you had married not only a scrubwoman but--the
sister of a--thief!" Suddenly she sprang to her feet, her clinging arms
held him to her bosom and, drawing down his head, she pressed her mouth
to his; holding him thus, she spoke, her voice low and quick and
passionate:
"Oh, my love, my love! I do love you with every thought, with every part
of me--so much, so very much that my heart is breaking, I think.
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