Let me stay just the same.

Let me really be what I thought I was, your sister.

You will not send me away ?" She looked up at him now, but quickly turned away, for the expression of his white, haggard face was more than she could bear, and she knew there was a pang, keener even than any she had felt, a pang which must be terrible, to crush a strong man as Hugh was crushed.
"Forgive me, Hugh," she said, as he did not speak, but sat gazing at her in a kind of stunned bewilderment.

"You would not have me for your wife, if I did not love you ?" "Never, Alice, never!" he answered.

"But it is not any easier to bear.