"Yes," he said; "yes, I know; but not as I love you. No, no, you
couldn't. There's not enough in me to love. You are the only woman in
the world to me; I could no more marry another than I could rise from
the dead. Could you marry another man?"

"Of course not," said the girl; "you know I could not."

"Say that again," he said passionately, "say it again. Tell me that
whatever may happen--yes, I repeat it--_whatever_ may happen, you'll
never marry another."

"Radford, what is the matter with you?" she cried. His face was as pale
as death, and his eyes shone with a strange light.

"Matter with me!" he cried. "It is our wedding-day to-morrow; just think
of it! I am going to be at the church early, and I am going to wait
there till noon, and then you will come, and the minister will read the
marriage service, and you will promise to take me for better or for
worse, and you will vow to keep to me as long as we both shall live.
Yes, I've been reading the marriage service. My God, the wonder of it!
That's why I'm afraid. If I lost you, I should sink into a deeper hell
than ever Dante saw in his wild journeyings. No 'thrilling regions of
thick-ribbed ice,' no bottomless pit full of fire and brimstone could be
as terrible as the hell to which I should go if I lost you. That is what
is the matter with me. And you promise me, don't you? _Whatever_ may
happen, you'll never marry another man?"

"No," she said, "I will never marry another man!"

"You could not, could you?" he said, almost plaintively.

"No," she replied, "I could not."

"And to you a promise is sacred, isn't it? You are not like other women,
to whom a promise is no more than a garment which is out of the
fashion."

"Of course a promise is sacred to me," she replied.

He looked at her with fierce, devouring eyes. He tried to read her very
soul.

"Look at me," he said.

She looked at him, and their eyes met, his burning with the light of his
passion, yet steady with the strength of the man behind them; hers
steady too, and fervent with the love and admiration which filled her
heart.

"Say it again."

"Say what again?"

"Say you will never marry another man, whatever may happen."

"I will never marry another man, whatever may happen."

He clasped her to his heart, and rained kisses upon her, and then he
laughed.

"I do not fear now," he said, "I am like the man they sing about--'I
fear no foe in shining armour bright' I can face anything. Olive,