"Let me tell you, first, that I admire you, esteem you, infinitely:
let me say this before I go; and you will think of me kindly." He said
this pleadingly.

I looked at him wonderingly. Did he not _yet_ know how much I loved
him? My courage and pride were ebbing fast away. Faintly I said,
"Before you go kneel down in front of me, and let me touch your
forehead with my lips." He did so, and I bent forward and took his
head in both my hands and kissed it. Somehow as I did it the strange
thought came to me that if I had ever had a son, just so I have kissed
his head. It was a yearning feeling, with such tenderness in it that
my heart seemed dissolving. Many times. I kissed it and held it, and
then, "Good-bye, my only love," I said. "I could have loved you very
well."

His eyes were wet with tears as he raised his head. "I shall never
forget you: you are nobleness itself," he said. "God bless and prosper
you, Miss Linton!" Then he went.

That is all, all, and life is where it was a month ago; only, "I wear
my rue with a difference." He was my inferior. I was higher and nobler
and purer than he, but I loved him, and the greatest joy I could know
would have been to lead my life with him. So it is over, and this book
had best be put away. I will go back to my old life, and see what I
can make of it. I am glad to have known what love meant: I shall be
gladder after a while, when this ache is over. If he could but have
loved me as I loved him--if he could! But he could not, and it was not
to be. I must learn to be again a strong-minded woman.