“I’ll never feel quite the same toward life because I know there’s such a wonderful man in the world.”

She controlled her voice now and was holding back the tears. Her well-bred manner from the world was coming to her aid. He mustn’t see how much this meant to her. She put out a cold little hand and laid it timidly in his big brown one. He held it a moment and looked down at it, closing his fingers over it in a strong clasp, then laid it gently back in her lap as though it were too precious to keep. Her heart thrilled at his touch.

“Thank you,” he said simply, with formality in his tone. “But I can’t see how you can think well of me. I’m an utter stranger to you. I have no right to talk of such things to you.”

“You didn’t tell me,” answered Hazel. “You told—God.” Her words were slow and low with awe. “I only overheard. It was my fault—but—I’m not—sorry. It was—wonderful to hear!”

He watched her shy dignity as she talked, her face half turned away. She was beautiful in her confusion. His whole spirit yearned toward her.

“I feel like a monster,” he said suddenly. “You know I love you, but you don’t understand how, in this short time even, you’ve filled my life, my whole being. And yet I may never try or hope to win your love in return. It must seem strange to you—”

“I think I understand,” she said softly. “You spoke of it in the night—you know.” She shrank from hearing it again.

“Will you let me explain it thoroughly to you?”

“If—you think best.”

She turned her face away and watched the eagle, now a mere speck in the distance.

“You see, I’m not free to do as I might wish—as other men are free. I’ve consecrated my life to serve God in this place. I know—I knew when I came here—that it was no place to bring a woman. Few can stand the life. It’s filled with deprivation and hardship. They’re inevitable. You’re used to care and luxury. No man could ask a sacrifice like that of a woman he loved. He wouldn’t be a man if he did. It isn’t like marrying a girl who feels called and loves to give her life to the work. That would be a different matter. But a man has no right to expect it of a woman—”

He paused to find the right words, and Hazel in a small, dignified voice reminded him: “You’re forgetting one of the reasons.”

“Forgetting?”

He turned toward her, and their eyes met for just an instant.