His friends quitted him at a motion of the elbows. He knelt on the sofa, leaning across it, with clasped hands.
‘You are she!—So, then, is a contradiction of me to be the commencement?’
‘After the apparition of Hamlet’s father the prince was mad,’ said Clotilde hurriedly, and she gazed for her hostess, a paroxysm of alarm succeeding that of her boldness.
‘Why should we two wait to be introduced?’ said he. ‘We know one another. I am Alvan. You are she of whom I heard from Kollin: who else? Lucretia the gold-haired; the gold-crested serpent, wise as her sire; Aurora breaking the clouds; in short, Clotilde!’
Her heart exulted to hear him speak her name. She laughed with a radiant face. His being Alvan, and his knowing her and speaking her name, all was like the happy reading of a riddle. He came round to her, bowing, and his hand out. She gave hers: she could have said, if asked, ‘For good!’ And it looked as though she had given it for good.
CHAPTER IV
‘Hamlet in due season,’ said he, as they sat together. ‘I shall convince you.’
She shook her head.
‘Yes, yes, an opinion formed by a woman is inflexible; I know that: the fact is not half so stubborn. But at present there are two more important actors: we are not at Elsinore. You are aware that I hoped to meet you?’