He couldn't give her romance, but he could give her every grace, and her calm made him feel, happily and securely, that grace would quite content her.
'You must see,' he went on, still with his eyes on hers, 'that it's more than that.

You must see that you are dearer than that.' And then he brought out his simple question, 'Will you be my wife ?' Althea sat still and her mind whirled.

Until then she had been unprepared.

Her own feeling, the feeling that she had refused for days to look at, had been so strong that she had only known its strength and its danger to her pride; she had had no time to wonder about Gerald's feeling.

And now, in its freedom, her feeling was so joyous that she could know only its joy.