He rose to his feet.
He was very close to her and Gardenia held her breath.
“I love you,” he said softly. “I love you and so I want you and only you to be my wife. I have known a lot of women but I have never, and this is the truth, Gardenia, asked one of them to marry me and so I don’t want you on any other terms, I want you as my wife, as the mother of my children, as the woman I love with all my heart and soul and worship because she is pure and perfect.”
Gardenia was trembling, but it was with happiness that was almost too great to be borne.
“Oh, Vane,” she said unsteadily, “I love you ‒ so terribly.”
He swept her into his arms, his lips found hers and she knew then that nothing in the world mattered to either of them except for this wild, glorious, passionate and overwhelming lov
