Then all the deeps in her great nature broke up. She did not weep, but she looked at him with her large dark eyes and the cry in them smote his heart. With a struggle that blanched his face, he kept his arms at his side, but his lips worked in agony, and he slowly murmured, “If after a time your heart loves me like this, and you are willing to bear shadow as well as sunshine with me, come back with your aunt and sit at my hearthstone, not as my child but as a dear and honored guest. I will try and be worthy—” He paused, “Will you come, Paula?”
“Yes, yes.”
“Not soon, not now,” he murmured, “God will show you when.”
And with nothing but a look, without having touched her or so much as brushed her garments with his, he retired again into his room.