then I shall be as stone-cold a man as her fetish of a French
knight, the Sieur Amadis! Ah, my little Innocent, in time to come
you may understand what love is--perhaps to your sorrow!--you may
need a strong defender--and I shall be ready! Sooner or later--now
or years hence--if you call me, I shall answer. I would find
strength to rise from my death-bed and go to you if you wanted me!
For I love you, my little love! I love you, and nothing can change
me. Only once in a life-time can a man love any woman as I love
you!"

And with a deep vow of fidelity sworn to his secret soul he sat
alone, watching the shadows of evening steal over the landscape--
falling, falling slowly, like a gradually descending curtain upon
all visible things, till Briar Farm stood spectral in the gloom
like the ghost of its own departed days, and lights twinkled in
the lattice windows like little eyes glittering in the dark. Then
silently bidding farewell to all his former dreams of happiness,
he set himself to face "the burden and heat of the day"--that
long, long day of life so difficult to live, when deprived of
love!





BOOK TWO: HIS FACT


BOOK TWO