Let me be near
you! You have a thousand interests in life--I have but one. You can live
without love, I cannot. Oh, Norman, for my sake, for my love's sake,
for my happiness' sake, take me back, dear--take me back!"
The golden head dropped forward and fell on his breast, her hands clung
to him with almost despairing pain.
"I will be so humble, darling. I can keep away from all observation. It
is only to be with you that I wish--only to be near you. You cannot be
hard--you cannot send me away; you will not, for I love you!"
Her hands clung more closely to him.
"Many men have forgiven their wives even great crimes, and have taken
them back after the basest desertion. Overlook my father's crime and
pardon me, for Heaven's dear sake!"
"My dearest Madaline, if you would but understand! I have nothing to
pardon. You are sweetest, dearest, loveliest, best. You are one of the
purest and noblest of women. I have nothing to pardon; it is only that I
cannot take disgrace into my family. I cannot give to my children an
inheritance of crime."
"But, Norman," said the girl, gently, "because my father was a felon,
that does not make me one--because he was led into wrong, it does not
follow that I must do wrong.
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