Put it away, sir!"
She smoothed it away with her little white hand.
"Well, at any rate, I don't think that quite everybody is the worse,"
said he, looking down at her. "There is one, at least, who is beyond
taint, one who is good, and pure, and true, and who would love me as
well if I were a poor clerk struggling for a livelihood. You would,
would you not, Laura?"
"You foolish boy! of course I would."
"And yet how strange it is that it should be so. That you, who are the
only woman whom I have ever loved, should be the only one in whom I also
have raised an affection which is free from greed or interest. I wonder
whether you may not have been sent by Providence simply to restore my
confidence in the world. How barren a place would it not be if it were
not for woman's love! When all seemed black around me this morning, I
tell you, Laura, that I seemed to turn to you and to your love as the
one thing on earth upon which I could rely. All else seemed shifting,
unstable, influenced by this or that base consideration. In you, and
you only, could I trust."
"And I in you, dear Raffles! I never knew what love was until I met
you."
She took a step towards him, her hands advanced, love shining in her
features, when in an instant Raffles saw the colour struck from her
face, and a staring horror spring into her eyes.
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