But no answering hands met hers.  Instead, he drew away from her and faced her, stern-lipped.

“I must make you understand,” he said.  “You don’t know what it is that you are asking.  I’ve made shipwreck of my life, and I must pay the penalty.  But, by God, I’m not going to let you pay it, too!  And if you married me, you would have to pay.  You would be joining your life to that of an outcast.  I can never go out into the world as other men may.  If I did”—­slowly—­“if I did, sooner or later I should be driven away—­thrust back into my solitude.  I have nothing to offer—­nothing to give—­only a life that has been cursed from the outset.  Don’t misunderstand me,” he went on quickly.  “I’m not complaining, bidding for your sympathy.  If a man’s a fool, he must be prepared to pay for his folly—­even though it means a life penalty for a moment’s madness.  And I shall have to pay—­to the uttermost farthing.  Mine’s the kind of debt which destiny never remits.”  He paused; then added defiantly:  “The woman who married me would have to share in that payment—­to go out with me into the desert in which I lie, and she would have to do this without knowing what she was paying for, or why the door of the world is locked against me.  My lips are sealed, nor shall I ever be able to break the seal. Now do you understand why I can never ask you, or any other woman to be my wife?”

Sara looked at him curiously; he could not read the expression of her face.

“Have you finished?” she asked.  “Is that all?”

“All?  Isn’t it enough?”—­with a grim laugh.

“And you are letting this—­this folly of your youth stand between us?”

“The world applies a harder word than folly to it!”

“I don’t care anything at all about the world.  What do you call it?”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“I call it folly to ask the criminal in the dock whether he approves the judge’s verdict.  He’s hardly likely to!”

For a moment she was silent.  Then she seemed to gather herself together.

“Garth, do you love me?”

The words fell clearly on the still, summer air.

“Yes”—­doggedly—­“I love you.  What then?”

“What then?  Why—­this!  I don’t care what you’ve done.  It doesn’t matter to me whether you are an outcast or not.  If you are, then I’m willing to be an outcast with you.  Oh, Garth—­My Garth!  I’ve been begging you to marry me all afternoon, and—­and——­” with a broken little laugh—­“you can’t keep on refusing me!”

Before her passionate faith and trust the barriers he had raised between them came crashing down.  His arms went round her, and for a few moments they clung together and love wiped out all bitter memories of the past and all the menace of the future.

But presently he came back to his senses.  Very gently he put her from him.

“It’s not right,” he stammered unsteadily.  “I can’t accept this from you.  Dear, you must let me go away. . . .  I can’t spoil your beautiful life by joining it to mine!”