Having spoken thus, I was silent--gazing at her intently. She paled and flushed alternately, and seemed for a moment lost in thought--then a sudden smile of triumph curved her mouth--she raised her large lovely eyes to mine, with a look of melting and wistful tenderness. She laid her needle-work gently down, and came close up to me--her fragrant breath fell warm on my cheek--her strange gaze fascinated me, and a sort of tremor shook my nerves.
"You mean," she said, with a tender pathos in her voice--"that you are willing to marry me, but that you do not really LOVE me?"
And almost appealingly she laid her white hand on my shoulder--her musical accents were low and thrilling--she sighed faintly. I was silent--battling violently with the foolish desire that had sprung up within me, the desire to draw this witching fragile thing to my heart, to cover her lips with kisses--to startle her with the passion of my embraces! But I forced the mad impulse down and stood mute. She watched me--slowly she lifted her hand from where it had rested, and passed it with a caressing touch through my hair.
"No--you do not really LOVE me," she whispered--"but I will tell you the truth--I LOVE YOU!"
And she drew herself up to her full height and smiled again as she uttered the lie. I knew it was a lie--but I seized the hand whose caresses stung me, and held it hard, as I answered: "YOU love ME? No, no--I cannot believe it--it is impossible!"
She laughed softly. "It is true though," she said, emphatically, "the very first time I saw you I knew I should love you! I never even liked my husband, and though in some things you resemble him, you are quite different in others--and superior to him in every way. Believe it or not as you like, you are the only man in all the world I have ever loved!"
And she made the assertion unblushingly, with an air of conscious pride and virtue. Half stupefied at her manner, I asked: "Then you will be my wife?"
"I will!" she answered--"and tell me--your name is Cesare, is it not?"
"Yes," I said, mechanically.
"Then, CESARE" she murmured, tenderly, "I will MAKE you love me very much!"
And with a quick lithe movement of her supple figure, she nestled softly against me, and turned up her radiant glowing face.
"Kiss me!" she said, and waited. As one in a whirling dream, I stooped and kissed those false sweet lips! I would have more readily placed my mouth upon that of a poisonous serpent! Yet that kiss roused a sort of fury in me. I slipped my arms round her half-reclining figure, drew her gently backward to the couch she had left, and sat down beside her, still embracing her. "You really love me?" I asked almost fiercely.