human
Joe!
gpt
Nina, he said, bending his head close to hers,
human
The tears she had been trying to conceal rushed into her eyes.
gpt
Glad, Joe? There are no words that can tell how glad! Oh, we have all missed you so! Sometimes I have thought that Mother would die of grief and longing. And Father—oh, Joe, his patience, his gentleness, his suffering, his noble and generous admission of his mistake——
human
But you, Nina, you——
gpt
I, Joe? Why, of course I am glad! Why shouldn’t I be glad? Both my dear brothers back from war——
human
But I am not your brother, Princess. I don’t want to be your brother. Then suddenly the denial that he had so long set on his heart burst its bonds and cried to her,
gpt
Oh, Nina, Nina, dearest, sweetest, loveliest girl in all the world, I don’t want you for my sister. I love you, I love you! I want you for my love, my sweetheart, something nearer, dearer, sweeter than a sister—I want you for my wife!
human
I have always loved you, Princess. Ever since the day that I first saw you out there on the desolate prairies, lying on the graves of your father and mother. I have always loved you——
gpt
Oh, Joe, Joe, why didn’t you tell me so before! she cried.
human
You went away to the war—and I might never have known. I thought you cared for me only as a sister, and I have suffered—my God, how I have suffered—thinking that you did not care for me, while I—while I——
gpt
While you—say it, darling, say it; my heart has been breaking for those words! I thought I should never hear them from your lips. I thought you loved Lige. I could not speak because I thought he loved you and you cared for him. The night before we went away I saw you in his arms, and I thought—I thought——
human
You thought I cared for _Lige_?
gpt
Yes, dearest, yes, I truly, truly, did.
human
And you went away without a word! You gave up your own chance of happiness because you thought you were adding to mine—and his! But what about me, Joe? I almost broke my heart trying to make myself love you like a sister. Oh, Joe, Joe, how like you! And you never suspected about Beatrice? Oh, Joe, you dear, darling old simpleton, how _could_ you think such a thing? Didn’t you know that there never was—never could be—any one else in all the world but _you_?