"Is not my love worthy ?" She lifted her head then, resting one hand against the dishevelled hair, her eyes misty from tears.
"Worthy?
O God, yes! but so useless; so utterly without power." Winston strode to the window and back again, his hands clenched, the veins showing across his forehead.

Suddenly he dropped upon his knees beside her, clasping her one disengaged hand within both his own.
"Beth, I refuse to believe," he exclaimed firmly.

"Love is never useless, never without power, either in this world or the next.

Tell me, then, once for all, here before God, do you love me ?" She swept the clinging tears from her lashes, the soft clasp of her fingers upon his hand unconsciously tightening.
"You may read an answer within my face," she replied, slowly.

"It must be that my eyes tell the truth, although I cannot speak it with my lips." "Cannot?
In God's name, why ?" She choked, yet the voice did not wholly fail her.
"Because I have no right.