I held him desperately, recklessly. His eyes, put me beside
myself; his words filled me with a frenzy of despair.

"Go where you may," I said, "I go with you!
Friends--reputation--I care nothing who I lose, or what I lose!
Oh, Eustace, I am only a woman--don't madden me! I can't live
without you. I must and will be your wife!"

Those wild words were all I could say before the misery and
madness in me forced their way outward in a burst of sobs and
tears.

He yielded. He soothed me with his charming voice; he brought me
back to myself with his tender caresses. He called the bright
heaven above us to witness that he devoted his whole life to me.
He vowed--oh, in such solemn, such eloquent words!--that his one
thought, night and day, should be to prove himself worthy of such
love as mine. And had he not nobly redeemed the pledge? Had not
the betrothal of that memorable night been followed by the
betrothal at the altar, by the vows before God! Ah, what a life
was before me! What more than mortal happiness was mine!

Again I lifted my head from his bosom to taste the dear delight
of seeing him by my side--my life, my love, my husband, my own!

Hardly awakened yet from the absorbing memories of the past to
the sweet realities of the present, I let my cheek touch his
cheek, I whispered to him softly, "Oh, how I love you! how I love
you!"