I heard a voice unlike my own, saying: "I love you, Elsin. Why do you repulse me?"
And as she answered nothing, I went to her and took her hand. But the dismayed eyes only widened, the color faded from her parted lips.
"Can you not see," I whispered, "can you not see I love you?"
"You--love--me!"
I caught her in my arms. A bright blush stained neck and face, and she threw back her head, avoiding my lips.
"Elsin, I beg you--I beg you to love me! Can you not see what you have done to me?--how I am awakened?"
"Wait," she pleaded, resisting me, "wait, Carus. I--I am afraid----"
"Of love, sweetheart?"
"Wait," she panted--"give me time--till morning--then if I change not--if my heart stirs again so loudly when you hold me--thus--and--and crush me so close to you--so close--and promise to love me----"
"Elsin, Elsin, I love you!"
"Wait--wait, Carus!--my darling. Oh, you must not--kiss me--until you know--what I am----"
Her face burned against mine; her eyes closed. Through the throbbing silence her head drooped, lower, lower, yielding her mouth to mine; then, with a cry she turned in my arms, twisting to her knees, and dropped her head forward on the bed. And, as I bent beside her, she gasped: "No--no--wait, Carus! I know myself! I know myself! Take your lips from my hands--do not touch me! My brain has gone blind, I tell you! Leave me to think--if I can----"
"I will not leave you here in tears. Elsin, Elsin, look at me!"
"The tears help me--help us both," she sobbed. "I know what I know. Leave me--lest the very sky fall to crush us in our madness----"
I bent beside her, a new, fierce tenderness choking me; and at my touch she straightened up, tear-stained face lifted, and flung both arms around my neck.
"I love you, Carus! I love you!" she stammered. "I care for that, only--only for that! If it be for a week, if it be for a day, an hour, an instant, it is what I was made for, it is what I was fashioned for--to love you, Carus! There is nothing else--nothing else in all the world! Love me, take me, do with me what you will! I yield all you ask, all you beg, all you desire--all save wedlock!"
She swayed in my arms. A deadly pallor whitened her; then her knees trembled and she gave way, sinking to the floor, her head buried in the flowering curtains of the bed; and I to drop on my knees beside her, seeking to lift her face while the sobs shook her slender body, and she wept convulsively, head prostrate in her arms.