"We didn't go into the city until the sky was full of stars,
so we walked out upon the high terrace, to and fro, and--she
counselled me to go back.
"'My dearest,' she said, and her sweet face looked up to me,
'this is Death. This life you lead is Death. Go back to them, go
back to your duty--'
"She began to weep, saying, between her sobs, and clinging to
my arm as she said it, 'Go back--Go back.'
"Then suddenly she fell mute, and, glancing down at her face,
I read in an instant the thing she had thought to do. It was one
of those moments when one sees.
"'No!' I said.
"'No?' she asked, in surprise and I think a little fearful at
the answer to her thought.
"'Nothing,' I said, 'shall send me back. Nothing! I have
chosen. Love, I have chosen, and the world must go. Whatever
happens I will live this life--I will live for you! It--nothing
shall turn me aside; nothing, my dear one. Even if you died--even
if you died--'
"'Yes?' she murmured, softly.
"'Then--I also would die.'
"And before she could speak again I began to talk, talking
eloquently--as I could do in that life--talking to exalt love, to
make the life we were living seem heroic and glorious; and the
thing I was deserting something hard and enormously ignoble that it
was a fine thing to set aside. I bent all my mind to throw that
glamour upon it, seeking not only to convert her but myself to
that.
Pages:
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86