“Like a huge window full of jewels,” said Katya.
The tens of thousands of lights were reflected in the sea as clearly as a face is reflected in a mirror.
“Which is the more real?” asked Fallon; “the city’s illumination or the sea’s version of it?”
“The water is quite warm,” said Katya, laying a white hand on the surface of the indigo sea.
“Yes,” said Fallon. “You could, if you wished, more easily plunge your hand into my heart than into that water.”
“I know,” she said; “perhaps some day I will.”
“Perhaps some day it will be too late. I cannot go on loving you like this—desperately—for ever. Love can be broken by its own strength.”
“You must not threaten me,” she said. “Your attraction for me is your strength: strong people do not threaten. They do not even warn.”
“Then you do love me?”
“Of course. That is, if you call it love.”