"
"You ask of me a very great thing, sir!" I groaned.
"Indeed, yes, Peregrine, so very great that only the greatest love
could possibly grant it."
Long after the Earl had limped away, I sat crouched beside the stream,
my head bowed between clasping hands, blind and deaf and unconscious
of all else but the tempest that raged within me, a wild confusion of
doubt and fearful speculation with a passionate rebellion against
circumstance, and a growing despair. Gradually these chaotic thoughts
took form, marshalling themselves against each other, so that it
seemed as two voices argued bitterly within me, thus:
THE FIRST VOICE. To give up Diana for two long, weary years--
THE SECOND VOICE. But for Diana's sake!
THE FIRST VOICE. To forego the joys of Diana's companionship for two,
empty, desolate years.
THE SECOND VOICE. But for Diana's own future good!
THE FIRST VOICE. Why should Love demand such thing of any lover?
THE SECOND VOICE. Because he boasted his love beyond all other. Was it
but an idle boast?
THE FIRST VOICE. No lover would ever do such thing!
THE SECOND VOICE. Except he be indeed greatly true and most unselfish.
THE FIRST VOICE. Diana would never leave me.
THE SECOND VOICE. Never, even though it were the passion of her life!
For truly a woman's love is ever more unselfish than a man's.
THE FIRST VOICE. She loves me too much to endure such parting.
THE SECOND VOICE. She loves you so much she would endure even this to
become your comrade as well as wife, to fit herself that she may take
her place beside you in your world, serene and assured, to become the
woman you can revere for her intellect and refinement.
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