Page 345 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

have done if something else had happened? Why, you might
not have loved me.’
If there had been for a moment any sentiment of remorse
in his selfish heart, the hesitation of her answer went far to
dispel it.
‘To be sure, that’s true,’ and he placed his arm round her.
She lifted her face again with a bright laugh.
‘We are a pair of geese—supposing! How can we help
what has past? We have the Future, darling—the Future, in
which I am to be your little wife, and we are to love each
other all our lives, like the people in the story-books.’
Temptation to evil had often come to Maurice Frere, and
his selfish nature had succumbed to it when in far less witch-
ing shape than this fair and innocent child luring him with
wistful eyes to win her. What hopes had he not built upon
her love; what good resolutions had he not made by reason
of the purity and goodness she was to bring to him? As she
said, the past was beyond recall; the future—in which she
was to love him all her life—was before them. With the hy-
pocrisy of selfishness which deceives even itself, he laid the
little head upon his heart with a sensible glow of virtue.
‘God bless you, darling! You are my Good Angel.’
The girl sighed. ‘I will be your Good Angel, dear, if you
will let me.’

For the Term of His Natural Life