Be sure I shall not easily let you go. Rosmore was wrong,
you shall be free to choose; but I will use every artifice I have to
make you choose to stay with me. It has never seemed to me that words
were necessary. Love came to me as the sunshine and the wind come, given
to me, a free gift from Heaven. One moment I was without it, ignorant of
it, and the next it was a part of my life. Before, to live had seemed a
great thing, to be a man, to do a man's work was enough; afterwards,
life could not be life without love. Rob me of love now, and you leave
me nothing."
"When was the moment, Gilbert?"
"When I saw you shrinking from the crowd as it poured out of Newgate,"
he whispered.
"Even then?" she said.
"Yes; and I did not know who you were, Barbara. It did not seem to
matter. Love had come--I thought to us both. I could not understand that
it should come to me so suddenly, so wonderfully, and not come to you
also. A little waiting, and then you would be mine. It must happen so.
And then came my token and talisman. See how close it has clung to me."
With fingers that trembled a little, he drew out the white ribbon which
was fastened about his neck.
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