It had other
birth."
"In what?"
She did not in the least hesitate to answer, her eyes clear and honest
upon his own.
"In my love for you," she answered, quietly, her cheeks reddening to
the frank avowal.
He grasped her hands, drawing her, unresisting, toward him.
"You confess this to me?"
"Yes, to you; but to you only because I trust you, because I know you
as an honorable man," she said, speaking with an earnest simplicity
irresistible. "I am not ashamed of the truth, not afraid to
acknowledge it frankly. If there be wrong in this; that wrong has
already been accomplished; the mere uttering of it cannot harm either
of us. We know the fact without words. I love you; with all my heart
I love you. I can say this to you here in the silence, yet I could not
speak it openly before the world. Why? Because such love is wrong?
Under God I do not know; only, the world would misunderstand, would
question my motives, would misjudge my faith. By the code I am not the
mistress of my heart; it has been legally surrendered.
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