"
"You can't be _in extremis_ when you begin to compliment."
"Don't you wish to know what the picture was?"
"Oh, yes, if it will help you pass the time!"
"I saw you sitting by a hearth, and I thought, 'If that hearth were
mine it would be the loveliest picture the world had known.' Now you
see what an egotist I am. You look so enchanting in that firelight
that I cannot resist--I would try so hard to be worthy of you, Madge.
Make your own terms again, as I said once to you before."
"My own terms?" she repeated, turning a sudden and searching glance
upon him. "Then tell me, did you hear what I said this afternoon when
I first found you?"
He hesitated a moment, and then said, firmly: "Yes, every word; but,
Madge, you must not punish me for what I could not help. It would not
be right."
"Could you hear me and yet--"
"I could hear you and yet could not move a muscle until you fainted,
and then my intense mental excitement and solicitude must have broken
the paralysis caused by the shock of my fall. Oh, Madge, look at me!
Only a false pride can come between us now. My love is not worthy to
be compared with yours, but it is genuine, and it will--it _will_ last
as long as I do. I shall bless this accident and all the pain I must
suffer if they bring you to me.
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