What would be a man's noblest motive under such circumstances?
Surely self-sacrifice! And yet there could be no doubt as to Harold's earnestness when he had told her that he loved her.

.

.
Here Stephen covered her face in one moment of rapture.

But the gloom that followed was darker than the night.

She did not pursue the thought.
That would come later when she should understand.
And yet, so little do we poor mortals know the verities of things, so blind are we to things thrust before our eyes, that she understood more in that moment of ecstasy than in all the reasoning that preceded and followed it.