348 'GOD'S PEACE'
THE END OF JANUARY.
XXIX ^ RETA has never asked me about my past, VJ generally the first question a man has to answer his beloved. I asked myself could it be due to ignorance? No, I think not. Greta's knowledge of life is clear and distinct. She speaks frankly about things that other young girls think it a sign of innocence to blush over. Could it then be due to excess of faith in me ?
I did not wish to have any doubt or misconcep- tion about this, so one day I asked her.
I have never seen Greta so amused. She laughed so heartily in such an exuberant way that she could hardly stop. At last she cried ; ' Really, you are too funny. In a half-offended way you ask me whether I believe you have lived like the old ladies in the institution. No, my dear boy, you need not worry about that. You have too forcibly impressed the public with your dissipations for anybody to be ignorant of what a terrible person you are.'
She laughed again so that I became quite em- barrassed. But as she became more serious she said, as we went through the wood : ' Let us sit down on this bench and I will tell you why your terrible past does not worry me, but on the con- trary reassures me, and shows me that this is the first time you feel what I at all events call real love. Afterwards you can tell me if I am right or wrong. ' First, I should like to say that my confidence has nothing to do with the common belief that a man must always use a great deal of his youth in
