"My need of you is much greater now," he went on to say, "than when I first asked you to share the world with me. Then I could have borne to lose you, as I had never boasted to myself that you were my own,--had never pictured to myself the life that might be mine if you were always to be with me. But since that day I have had no other hope,--no other hope but this for which I plead now. Am I to plead in vain?"
"You do not know me," she said; "how vile I have been! You do not think what it is,--for a woman to have promised herself to one man while she loved another."

"My need of you is much greater now," he went on to say, "than when I first asked you. Then I could have borne to lose you, as I had never pictured to myself the life that might be mine if you were with me. But since that day I have had no other hope but this. Am I to plead in vain?"
"You do not know me," she said; "how vile I have been! You do not think what it is, for a woman to have promised herself to one man while she loved another."
