“It is ignominious to feel poor, isn’t it?” he replied.
“Why? Why should it be?” she asked. He only stood still, in the terribly cold air that moved invisibly over the mountain tops, folding her round with his arms.
“I couldn’t bear this cold, eternal place without you,” he said. “I couldn’t bear it, it would kill the quick of my life.”
She kissed him again, suddenly.
“Do you hate it?” she asked, puzzled, wondering.
“If I couldn’t come near to you, if you weren’t here, I should hate it. I couldn’t bear it,” he answered.
“But the people are nice,” she said.
“I mean the stillness, the cold, the frozen eternality,” he said.
She wondered. Then her spirit came home to him, nestling unconscious in him.
“Yes, it is good we are warm and together,” she said.