"Will you marry me?" he asked, under his breath.
Then the slow, clear words came, "I cannot."
"I love you," he said, as though he had not heard her. "There is nothing for me in life without you; from the moment you came into my life there was nothing else, nothing in heaven or earth but you--your loveliness, your beauty, your hair, your hands, the echo of your voice haunting me, the memory of your every step, your smile, the turn of your head--all that I love in you--and all that I worship--your sweetness, your loyalty, your bravery, your honor. Give me all this to guard, to adore--try to love me; forget my faults, forgive all that I lack. I know--_I_ know what I am--what little I have to offer--but it is all that I am, all that I have. Constance! Constance! Must you refuse?"
"Did I refuse?" she faltered. "I don't know why I did."
With bare arm bent back and hand pressed over the hand that held her waist imprisoned, she looked up into his eyes. Then their lips met.
"Say it? Ah, I do say it: I love you--I love you. I said it years ago--when you were a boy and I wore muslin gowns above my knees. Did you think I had not guessed it?... And you told father to-night--you told him, because I never heard him laugh that way before.... And you are Jack--my boy that I loved when I was ten--my boy lover? Ah, Jack, I was never deceived."
He drew her closer and lifted her flushed face. "I told your father--yes. And I told him that we would go South with him."
"You--you dared assume that!--before I had consented!" she cried, exasperated.
"Why--why, I couldn't contemplate anything else."
Half laughing, half angry, she strained to release his arm, then desisted, breathless, gray eyes meeting his.
"No other man," she breathed--"no other man--" There was a silence, then her arms crept up closer, encircling his neck. "There is no other man," she sighed.
A warm October was followed by a muggy, wet November. The elm leaves turned yellow but did not fall; the ash-trees lighted up the woods like gigantic lanterns set in amber; single branches among the maples slowly crimsoned. As yet the dropping of acorns rarely broke the forest silence in Sagamore County, although the blue-jays screamed in the alders and crows were already gathering for their annual caucus.