one in the darkness, with
no one to comfort and help you to bear? The thought of it wrings my
heart."

"Oh, it is nothing," she said, her voice, in spite of her, choking up.
"I sometimes get nervous--I am not used to being alone. It is over now.
I will get the lamp--"

But he stopped her. He made one step toward her and took both her hands
in his.

"Wait," he said, in a controlled and quiet tone. In the silence that
followed the word they could hear the little clock on the mantel ticking
monotonously. Noel was trying hard, as they stood thus alone in the
stillness and half-darkness, to gather up his suddenly-weakened forces,
so that he might tell her, in the hope of giving her comfort, of the
resolute purpose he had entered into. But in the moment which he gave
himself to make this rally a sudden influence came over him from the
contact of the cold hands he held in his. At first it was a subtle,
faint, indefinite sensation, as of something strange and wonderful
and far away, but coming nearer. The very breath of his soul seemed
suspended, to listen and look as he waited. The clock ticked on, and
they stood there motionless as statues. Suddenly a short, low sigh
escaped Christine, and he felt her cold hands tremble. The swift
consciousness that ran through Noel was like living ecstasy injected in
his veins. He drew her two hands upward and crushed them against his
breast.

"Christine," he said, "you love me."

She met his ardent, agitated gaze with direct, unflinching eyes.

"Yes," she said distinctly, "I love you," but with the exertion of all
her power she shook herself free from his grasp, and sprang away from
him to the farthest limit of the little room.

"Stop," she said, waving him back with her hand. "I have owned the
truth, but I must speak to you--"

As well might Christine have tried to parley with a coming storm of
wind. The chained spirit within Noel had been set free by the words,
"Yes, I love you," that Christine had spoken, and his passionate love
must have its way. He followed her across the room, and with a gentle
force, against which she was as helpless as a child, he compelled her to
come into his arms, to put down her head against his shoulder and to
rest on his her bounding heart. He held her so in a close, restrictive
pressure, against which she soon ceased to struggle, but lay there still
and unresisting.

"Now," he said gently, speaking the low word softly and clearly in her
ear, "now