As we passed through the hall and peered into a little dark store-room beneath the staircase I thought: “What bliss it would be if I could pass the rest of my life with her in that dark corner, and never let anybody know that we were there!”

“It HAS been a delightful evening, hasn’t it?” I asked her in a low, tremulous voice.

Then I quickened my steps — as much out of fear of what I had said as out of fear of what I had meant to imply.

“Yes, VERY!” she answered, and turned her face to look at me with an expression so kind that I ceased to be afraid. I went on:

“Particularly since supper. Yet if you could only know how I regret” (I had nearly said) “how miserable I am at your going, and to think that we shall see each other no more!”