Oh , Una , how selfish it is of me to wish that you might love me ! Yet I do wish it , although I have nothing to offer you but a great love and all my willing work of hand and brain . If you loved me , I fear I should be weak enough to do you the wrong of wooing you . I want you so much , dear ! The schoolmaster added the last letter to the others and locked the box . When he unlocked it again , two days later , the letters were gone . He gazed at the empty box with dilated eyes . At first he could not realize what had happened . The letters could not be gone ! He must have made a mistake , have put them in some other place ! With trembling fingers he ransacked his trunk . There was no trace of the letters . With a groan he dropped his face in his hands and tried to think . His letters were gone -- those precious letters , held almost too sacred for his own eyes to read after they were written -- had been stolen from him ! The inmost secrets of his soul had been betrayed . Who had done this hideous thing ? He rose and went downstairs . In the farmyard he found Link tormenting his dog . Link was happy only when he was tormenting something . He never had been afraid of anything in his life before , but now absolute terror took possession of him at sight of the schoolmaster 's face .
Physical strength and force had no power to frighten the sullen lad , but all the irresistible might XXXXX a fine soul roused to frenzy looked out in the young man 's blazing eyes , dilated nostrils , and tense white mouth .
At If Una With although first for in of to