Why should all that tenderness be wasted on mere fading
flowers?
At last he spoke, interrupting her brooding over his roses.
"You are running away from me!" he charged.
"Well, and what if I am?" She looked at him with a loving defiance in her
eyes.
"Don't you know I love you?" he asked, sitting down beside her and talking
low and almost fiercely. "Don't you know I've been torn away from you, or
you from me, twice before now, and that I cannot stand it any more? Say,
don't you know it? Answer, please," The demand was kind, but peremptory.
"I was afraid so," she murmured with drooping eyes, and cheeks from which
all color had fled.
"Well, why do you do it? Why did you run away? Don't you care for me? Tell
me that. If you can't ever love me, you are excusable; but I must know it
all now."
"Yes, I care as much as you," she faltered, "but----"
"But what?" sharply.
"But you are going to be married this week," she said in desperation,
raising her miserable eyes to his.
He looked at her in astonishment.
"Am I?" said he. "Well, that's news to me; but it's the best news I've
heard in a long time. When does the ceremony come off? I wish it was this
morning. Make it this morning, will you? Let's stop this blessed old train
and go back to the Doctor. He'll fix it so we can't ever run away from
each other again. Elizabeth, look at me!"
But Elizabeth hid her eyes now. They were full of tears.
"But the lady--" she gasped out, struggling with the sobs.
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