'If you go, you'll never see me again,' said the marble child, and put its arms round his neck.
'Can't I come back to you when I've told them?' Ernest asked, returning the embrace.
'There will be no coming back,' said the marble child.
'But I want you. I love you best of everybody in the world,' Ernest said.
'I know.'
'I'll stay with you,' said Ernest.
The marble child said nothing.
'But if I don't tell them I shall be the same as a murderer,' Ernest whispered. 'Oh! let me go, and come back to you.'
'I shall not be here.'
'But I must go. I must,' said Ernest, torn between love and duty.