After a moment of reflection he took her hand and raised it respectfully to his lips. “You are a noble woman!” he said.
She made no reply. With drooping head and downcast eyes she waited for his decision. He accepted his responsibility.
“I must not, and dare not, think of the hardship of my own position,” he said; “I owe it to you to speak without reference to the future that may be in store for me. No man can be worthy of the sacrifice which your generous forgetfulness of yourself is willing to make. I respect you; I admire you; I thank you with my whole heart. Leave me to my fate, Mrs. Callender—and let me go.”
He rose. She stopped him by a gesture.
“A young woman,” she answered, “would shrink from saying—what I, as an old woman, mean to say now. I refuse to leave you to your fate. I
