It took Dio some time to forget that at that moment she had caught a glimpse of the decrepit monster of Gem-ton—that the sun looked through the fog like a dead fish's eye.
The same evening when he was left alone with her, he got up suddenly, put his hands on her shoulders and brought his face near hers, as though he would kiss her; but did not—he merely smiled so that her heart stood still: she recalled the girl-like boy with a face as gentle as the face of the god whose name is Quiet-Heart.
A man dreams sometimes a dream of paradise, as though in sleep his soul had returned to its heavenly home; and on waking he cannot believe that it has been a dream only, cannot get used to his earthly exile and is full of sadness and yearning: such was the sadness in his face. The long lashes of the drooping eyelids, as though weighed down with sleep, seemed moist with tears, but there was a smile on the lips—a trace of paradise—heavenly joy shining through earthly sorrow like the sun through a cloud.
"I heard everything you said this afternoon, only I did not want to speak before her: one may not speak about this to anyone. You know this, don't you?" he asked, looking at her with the same smile.
"I know," Dio answered.
"Darling, how good it is that you came, how I have been waiting for you!"
He brought his face still nearer so that their lips almost touched.
"Do you love me?" he asked as simply as a child.
"I love you," she answered, as simply.
And it was a joy like a dream of paradise that he left her without a kiss.