"After once being obliged to walk arm-in-arm, we always went arm-in-arm afterwards."
"But other people, mother? Weren't you afraid of what they would say?"
"No; other people didn't exist for me. I can't remember how it all went on—it happened that one night we had sat down."
"Ah! now we are coming to it!"
"I asked to be allowed to sit down; I felt I could walk no longer. The night was glorious—silence and we two! He went on talking with his eyes looking into mine; he didn't know himself how they shone with happiness. I couldn't speak—I could hardly breathe—I was obliged to rest. And a few minutes after I sat on his knee."
"Was it he who——"
"I cannot quite remember. I only remember the first time my arms were about his neck and my face against his hair and beard. It was rapture, something absolutely new—it was bliss. The feeling of those giant arms round me transported me far, far away. But we were there on the boulder all the same."
"Were you as though beside yourself——?"
"Yes, that is just it! that is what it is called—but it really means being in possession of oneself, raised up to higher things. By his side I was myself twice over. That is love; nothing else deserves the name."
"Mother, mother! it was you, then, who sprang into his arms! It was you!"