That is, not love; but
every one else seemed less than they had been: and since I knew you
here, and since I thought I must go home, and never see you any
more, it was"--
She faltered and stopped, drooping her head before the tender
triumph of his glance. Truth had asserted herself, as with Dora she
must have done in any stress, but now of a sudden found herself
silenced by a timidity as charming as it was new in the strong and
well poised temperament of the girl who, a moment before so brave,
now stood trembling and blushing beneath her lover's gaze.
He drew her to his breast, and pressed his lips to hers.
"Dora, my own wife!" whispered he. "God so deal with me here and
hereafter as I with you, the best gift in his mighty hand!"
And Dora, hiding her face upon his breast, whispered again,--
"I was so unhappy an hour ago! and now, as Sunshine, says, I have
come to heaven all at once!"
Her lover answered by a mute caress; for there are moments when
words are all too weak for speech. And so he only clasped her closer
in his arms, and bent his head upon her own; while all about them
the hundred voices of the summer noon whispered benediction on their
joy; the eddying stream paused in its whirl to dimple into laughter
at their feet; the sunlight, broken and flecked by the waving
branches, fell in a shifting golden shower upon their heads; and
Nature, the great mother, through her myriad eyes and tongues,
blessed the betrothal of her dearest child.
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