And while he spoke, Viola listened, breathless.

If she could not comprehend, she no longer dared to distrust.

She felt that in that enthusiasm, self-deceiving or not, no fiend could lurk; and by an intuition, rather than an effort of the reason, she saw before her, like a starry ocean, the depth and mysterious beauty of the soul which her fears had wronged.

Yet, when he said (concluding his strange confessions) that to this life WITHIN life and ABOVE life he had dreamed to raise her own, the fear of humanity crept over her, and he read in her silence how vain, with all his science, would the dream have been.
But now, as he closed, and, leaning on his breast, she felt the clasp of his protecting arms,--when, in one holy kiss, the past was forgiven and the present lost,--then there returned to her the sweet and warm hopes of the natural life, of the loving woman.

He was come to save her! She asked not how,--she believed it without a question.