She clung to him desperately. It seemed the only way; for she was for the moment swept off her feet, terribly afraid of arousing that storm of passion which had so overwhelmed her the night before. Instinct warned her what to expect if she attempted to withdraw herself. Moreover, the tumult of her feeling was such that she did not want to do so. She wanted only to hide her head for a space, and be still.
He pressed her close, still laughing at her shyness. "What a good thing I'm not shy!" he said. "If I were, to-day would be the end of everything instead of the beginning. Can't you bring yourself to look at your new possession? Did you think you could laugh and run away for all time?"
Then, as in muffled accents she besought him to be patient with her, he softened magically and for the first time spoke of love.
"Don't you know you have wrenched the very heart out of me, you little brown witch? I loved you from the very first moment of our dance together. You've been too much for me all through. I had to have you. I simply had to have you."
She trembled afresh at his words, but she clung closer. If the fear deepened, so also did the fascination. She tried to picture him as hers--hers, and failed. He was so fine, so splendid, so much too big for her.
He went on, dropping his voice lower, his breath warm upon her neck. "Are you going to take all and give--nothing, Daphne? Did they make you without a heart, I wonder? Like a robin that mates afresh a dozen times in a season? Haven't you anything to give me, little sweetheart? Are you going to keep me waiting for a long, long time, and then send me empty away?"
That moved her. That he should stoop to plead with her seemed so amazing, almost a fabulous state of affairs.
With a little sob, she lifted her face at last. "Oh, Apollo!" she said brokenly. "Apollo the magnificent! I am all yours--all yours! But don't--don't take too much--at a time!"
The plea must have touched him, accompanied as it was by that full surrender. He held her a moment, looking down into her eyes with the fiery possessiveness subdued to a half-veiled tenderness in his own.
Then, very gently, even with reverence, he bent his face to hers. "Give me--just what you can spare, then, little sweetheart!" he said. "I can always come again for more now."