“And live on locusts and wild honey?” she asked.
“Yes, if you will be my wild honey. I’m going to begin to devour you right away.” And he caught her at last.
“Who gave you permission?” she whispered with cheek close to his.
“Who? Haven’t you heard the universe shouting aloud? The sky, and the sun and the lake and the woods. They’ve been crying ‘Mine! Mine! Mine!’ for the last ten minutes. You’ll never contradict them, sweetheart?”
“Never,” said she.
For a long moment they looked into each other’s eyes, and she read in his that mastery without tyranny which for some inexplicable reason sets a woman’s heart beating with unimagined bliss.
Ten minutes later, or so it seemed, Madeline pulled his watch from his pocket and started in dismay.
“Ellery,” she cried, “do you know that we have been sitting here for four hours? What will Mrs. Lenox and all the others think?”
“Who cares what they think? Let them think the truth, if their imaginations can soar to that height.”
“We must hurry back.”