“Doubt no longer, then. See me at your feet, and realise that I love you now, as I have ever done.”
Then she exclaimed:
“Oh! is it you? I had given up expecting you, and yet you are here.”
With her feeble, trembling hands, she had taken his, thus assuring herself that he was not a fanciful vision of her sleep.
He continued:
“You have always loved me, and I love you for ever. Yes, notwithstanding everything; and more deeply even than I should have ever thought it possible to do.”
It was an unhoped-for excess of happiness, and in this first minute of absolute joy they forgot everything else in the world, giving themselves up to the delightful certainty of their mutual affection, and their ability to declare it. The sufferings of the past, the obstacles of the future, had disappeared as if by magic. They did not even think of asking how it was that they had thus come together. But there they were, mingling their tears of joy together as they embraced each other with the purest of feelings: he was overcome with pity that she was so worn by grief and illness that she seemed like a mere shadow in his arms. In the enchantment of her surprise she remained half-paralysed, trembling from exhaustion, radiant with spiritual beauty, as she lay back in her great easy chair, so physically weary that she could not raise herself without falling again, but intoxicated with this supreme contentment.
“Ah, dear Seigneur, my only remaining wish is gratified. I longed to see you before death came.”
He lifted up his head, as with a despairing movement, and said:
“Do not speak of dying. It shall not be. I am here, and I love you.”