But there was no pain in it now; nothing but wonder and a sweet moved questioning.
'Why ?' The word was just breathed through her parted lips.
Kendal heard it with a start--the little sound loosed his speech and made him eloquent.
'Why?
Because I thought you must inevitably be absorbed, swallowed up by the great new future before you; because my own life looked so gray and dull beside yours.

I felt it impossible you should stoop from your height to love me, to yield your bright self to me, to give me heart for heart.
So I went away that I might not trouble you.

And then'-- his voice sank lower still--'came the summons to Paris, and Marie on her death-bed tried to make me hope.

And just now your pity drew the heart out of my lips.
Let me hear you forgive me.' Every word had reached its mark.

She had realized at last something of the depth, the tenacity, the rich, illimitable promise of the passion which she had roused.