“And you would wish to become a second Ahasuerus?” she asked, looking at me archly. “To keep walking thus, on and on, for all eternity? Surely not?”
“With you!” I cried, all my love in my face. “With you!”
She turned her eyes away. But as we passed a ledge of rock, where the shadow lay deep upon the road, she stumbled.
I know not how it was—I had thought only to catch her hand—but the touch of her set my blood aflame—she was in my arms, close against my breast. For an instant she looked up at me, startled; then, with a sigh, she yielded to me and laid her head upon my heart. And I was far past words—far past anything but the deep, tremulous joy of holding her, of gazing down into her eyes. She gave me to drink deep of them.
“How your heart beats!” she said at last, smiling up at me. “It is just here, under my ear.”
“For you, dear life! Every beat of it!”
“And mine for you,” she said. “Every beat of it!”
I looked up at the bright heavens—away at the distant hills.
“What is it?” she asked.
“That it should be true!” I said. “I have dreamed of it—longed for it—but that it should be true!”