“It would not matter to me who you were. I realized that whatever the consequences, I could not live without you.”

He then kissed her fiercely, demandingly, as if he was still afraid he might lose her and the agonies he had suffered when he tried to do so were still making him afraid.

“I love you!” he said when he raised his head. “I love you so much that I cannot think of anything except that you will be my wife and we will be together as fate intended us to be since the moment I saw you.”