You cannot suppose that I know exactly what he said, but he certainly set forth at some length his proposal that she should leave her father, and escape with her lover from the bondage in which she was now held.

He told her modestly of his success, in so far as it was necessary that she should understand his position.

It must have been a very eloquent letter, for it nearly persuaded her to a step of which she had wildly dreamed, indeed, but which in her calmer moments she regarded as impossible.
The interminable afternoon was drawing to a close, and once more she sat by the open window, regardless of the increasing cold.

Suddenly it all came over her,--the tremendous importance of the step she was about to take, if she should take Nino at his word, and really break from one life into another.

The long restrained tears, that had been bound from flowing through all Benoni's insults and her own anger, trickled silently down her cheek, no longer pale, but bright and flushed at the daring thought of freedom.
At first it seemed far off, as seen in the magician's glass.