"
"Nor that I have been unwomanly?"
"You are my dream of all that is glorious in womanhood."
"Yet I have followed you--have thrust myself at you, fairly at your
head, Alan."
"For which I thank God," He breathed devoutly.
"And I have told you that I love you, and you have taken me in your
arms, and have kissed me--"
"Yes."
"And I am walking now with my hand in yours--"
"And will continue to do so, if I can hold it."
"And I am another man's wife," she shuddered.
"You are mine," he declared doggedly. "You know it, and the Almighty God
knows it. It is blasphemy to speak of yourself as Graham's wife. You are
legally entangled with him, and that is all. Heart and soul and body you
are free."
"No, I am not free."
"But you are!"
And then, after a moment, she whispered at his shoulder: "Alan, because
you are the finest gentleman in all the world, I will tell you why I am
not. It is because--heart and soul--I belong to you."
He dared not look at her, and feeling the struggle within him Mary
Standish looked straight ahead with a wonderful smile on her lips and
repeated softly, "Yes, the very finest gentleman in all the world!"
Over the breasts of the tundra and the hollows between they went, still
hand in hand, and found themselves talking of the colorings in the sky,
and the birds, and flowers, and the twilight creeping in about them,
while Alan scanned the shortening horizons for a sign of human life.
Pages:
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278