How have I wooed you?"
"By not wooing at all, by taking a course which compelled my heart
to plead your cause, by giving unselfish devotion so unstintedly
that like the rain and dew of heaven, it has fostered a new life
in my heart, different from the old, yet sweet, real, and
precious. I have learned that I can be happier in making you
happy. Oh, I shall be no martyr. Am I inconstant because time and
your ministry have healed the old wound--because the steady warmth
and glow of your love has kindled mine?"
He regarded her with a gaze so rapt, so reverent, so expressive of
immeasurable gratitude that her eyes filled with tears. "I think
you do understand me," she whispered.
He kissed her hand in homage as he replied, "A joy like this is
almost as hard to comprehend at first as an equally great sorrow.
My garden teaches me to understand you. A perfect flower-stalk is
suddenly and rudely broken. Instead of dying, it eventually sends
out a little side-shoot which gives what bloom it can."
"And you will be content with what it can give?"
"I shall be glad with a happiness which almost terrifies me.
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