"It is this. First, you shall promise not to speak of this to me again until I give you permission."
"I will promise that. And on your part?"
"I will promise to give you my answer at the end of twelve months. In the meantime, you will go back to England, live your own life, and on the first day of May next year, if you still love me, and are as anxious then to make your sacrifice as you are now, I will meet you again and be your wife as soon as you please. What do you say?"
For a few moments I could answer nothing; then, though I am not theatrically inclined as a general rule, I fell on my knee, and taking her hand kissed it, saying in a voice I hardly recognised as my own:
"My queen and my wife!"
"You are content to abide by that?"
"Since you wish it, I am more than content," I answered, my heart overflowing with happiness.
"Then let us say no more on the subject. Goodnight! and may God bless you!"
She turned and left me without another word, and when I had seen her disappear into her hut, I too sought my couch, to dream, as I hoped, of the happiness that the future had in store for me.
