The reader also knows what had come of that,--how at last he had not been reticent.

He had not asked Lucy to be his wife; but he had said that which made it impossible that he should marry any other woman without dishonour.
As he thought of what he had done himself, he tried to remember whether Lucy had said a word expressive of affection for himself.
She had in truth spoken very few words, and he could remember almost every one of them.

"Have I ?"--she had asked, when he told her that she had ever been the princess reigning in his castles.

And there had been a joy in the question which she had not attempted to conceal.
She had hesitated not at all.

She had not told him that she loved him.