She did not answer his questions. And she asked none other. She stood, perforce, waiting to hear that of which instinct had warned her all along.
He began again in different vein. “I’ve been mighty lonely down here these last few thousand years. You see, I’ve never been appreciated or understood. The moment I saw you that terrible Tuesday—or was it a tragic Thursday?—I appreciated that you were different. To have the sympathy and approval of a woman-soul like you——” He interrupted with a laugh at himself. “But there, I’ll leave that ‘lonely,’ ‘misunderstood’ old plea for the husbands of the world to tell other men’s wives. The truth is, you have convinced me that I’ve missed a whole lot. Much as I despise weaknesses, I have come to feel that one would be a luxury. Dolores, I want to love you.”
“But I don’t want you to.” She stepped back from him.
“And I want you,” he continued imperturbably, “to want to love me. I could have made you do so long ago, just as your hypnotic osteopath could have done, but I’d not be satisfied with that brand. Come, give the devil his due!”
All she gave him was silence. He watched her while continuing.
“In the close relationship which I propose, you’ll have greater opportunity to quip my curiosity and compel my admiration. Should I tire of you our community of interests will bind me to you much as earthlings are bound in that state called—Fairest fiend, I ask you to become my queen.”
“No!”
Dolores was dismayed beyond all discretion. She tried to throw off the clutch which he laid upon her arm.
“You’d be wiser to conceal your aversion,” he advised. “You are going to accept me whether you wish to or not, just as you have accepted the office of Low Priestess. In both cases the answer was settled before the proposition was put. And it is a fair proposition, this last. I am positively anxious to care for you as much as I can—more, if anything, than I intend to make you care for me. ‘He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity.’ Don’t you see? I have acknowledged my wish for one weakness to give you every chance for graceful consent. With me it is now or never. I feel that you are the one woman-shade who can teach me—well, what I wish to know. But you won’t get a second chance. The Great-I-Am is a softy to give man a second chance in the Redemption. I shall not be that soft regarding you.”
As still she spoke no word, he urged more stressfully: