Not yet. I'm only beginning. I'm still weak--
still a coward. Donald, I must and will be free.''
He looked full at her, with a strange smile in his
brilliant eyes. Said he, with obvious intent to change the
subject: ``Mrs. Brindley's very unhappy that you
haven't been to see her.''
``When you asked me to marry you, the only reason
I almost accepted was because I want someone to support
me. I love you--yes. But it is as one loves
before one has given oneself and has lived the same
life with another. In the ordinary sense, it's love that
I feel. But--do you understand me, dearest?--in
another sense, it's only the hope of love, the belief that
love will come.''
He stopped short and looked at her, his eyes alive with
the stimulus of a new and startling idea.
``If you and I had been everything to each other,
and you were saying `Let us go on living the one life'
and I were hesitating, then you'd be right. And I
couldn't hesitate, Donald. If you were mine, nothing
could make me give you up, but when it's only the hope
of having you, then pride and self-respect have a chance
to be heard.
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