He took her hand in his silently, and held it close. She drew a long

troubled breath and said, "You do think we can always have between us

that loyalty to what is deep and living? It does not seem too much to

ask, when we are willing to give up everything else for it, even

happiness?"

He gave her a long, profound look. "I'm trying to give that loyalty to

you this minute, Marise darling," he said slowly, "when I tell you now

that I think it a very great deal to ask of life, a very great deal for

any human beings to try for. I should say it was much harder to get than

happiness."

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She was in despair. "Do you think that?" She searched his face anxiously

as though she found there more than in his speech. "Yes, yes, I see what

you mean." She drew a long breath. "I can even see how fine it is of you

to say that to me now. It's like a promise of how you will try. But oh,

Neale, I won't want life on any other terms!"

She stopped, looking down at her hand in his. He tightened his clasp.

His gaze on her darkened and deepened. "It's like sending me to get the

apples of Hesperides," he said, looking older than she, curiously and

suddenly older. "I want to say yes! It would be easy to say yes.

Darling, darling Marise, you can't want it more than I! But the very

intelligence that makes you want it, that makes me want it, shows me how

mortally hard it would be! Think! To be loyal to what is deepest and

most living in yourself . . . that's an undertaking for a life-time's

effort, with all the ups and downs and growths of life. And then to try

to know what is deepest and most living in another . . . and to try . . .

Marise! I will try. I will try with all my might. Can anybody do more

than try with all his might?"

Their gaze into each other's eyes went far beyond the faltering words

they spoke. She asked him in a low voice, "Couldn't you do more for me

than for yourself? One never knows, but . . . what else is love for, but

to give greater strength than we have?"

There was a moment's silence, in which their very spirits met flame-like

in the void, challenging, hoping, fearing. The man's face set. His

burning look of power enveloped her like the reflection of the sun. "I

swear you shall have it!" he said desperately, his voice shaking.




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