I envy now the milkmaids there below: anything to escape and be in earnest, anything for some one to teach me to be of use! Yes, this cholera--and this war--though only, only its coming shadow has passed over me,--and your words too--" cried she, and stopped and hesitated, as if afraid to tell too much--"they have wakened me--to a new life--at least to the dream of a new life!" "Have you not Major Campbell ?" said Headley, with a terrible effort of will.
"Yes--but has he taught me?
He is dear, and good, and wise; but he is too wise, too great for me.

He plays with me as a lion might with a mouse; he is like a grand angel far above in another planet, who can pity and advise, but who cannot--What am I saying ?" and she covered her face with her hand.
She dropped her glove as she did so.

Headley picked it up and gave it to her: as he did so their hands met; and their hands did not part again.
"You know that I love you, Valencia St.Just." "Too well! too well!" "But you know, too, that you do not love me." "Who told you so?
What do you know?
What do I know?
Only that I long for some one to make me--to make me as good as you are!" and she burst into tears.
"Valencia, will you trust me ?" "Yes!" cried she, looking up at him suddenly: "if you will not go to the war." "No--no--no! Would you have me turn traitor and coward to God; and now, of all moments in my life ?" "Noble creature!" said she; "you will make me love you whether I wish or not." What was it, after all, by which Frank Headley won Valencia's love?
I cannot tell.

Can you tell, sir, how you won the love of your wife?
As little as you can tell of that still greater miracle--how you have kept her love since she found out what manner of man you were.
So they paced homeward, hand in hand, beside the shining ripples, along the Dinas shore.

The birches breathed fragrance on them; the night-hawk churred softly round their path; the stately mountains smiled above them in the moonlight, and seemed to keep watch and ward over their love, and to shut out the noisy world, and the harsh babble and vain fashions of the town.