"I am so glad you've come. I have been so troubled, Jack. Just before
you came I was sitting here, and I thought I saw Ophelia in that pool
down there where the spring branch goes into the deep hole under the
willows, like my picture in Shakespeare."
"Nonsense," I said, drawing her to me. "Tell me what you ate for supper
last night? I believe you are in love."
She turned white, and her lips were drawn.
"No one loves me," she said, and she blushed crimson, "no one in the
right way. It is just like Ophelia, and so I was thinking--"
"No one shall love you any other way," I said, "unless they first reckon
with me, for I love you," I added tenderly, for I pitied her so much.
She looked up, smiling through her tears.