“Yes, time and thought.”
“And would you wait that time? Such beauty and such sweetness as are yours will not lack for suitors.”
“I shall wait. I have told you that I love you; no other man will be anything to me. I shall wed no other man.”
“You give all and take nothing; it is not just.”
“It is as God has willed. If it pleases God to touch your heart and to preserve us both alive, then in days to come our lives may be one life. Otherwise they must run apart till perchance we meet—in the eternal morning.”
“Oh, Miriam, I cannot leave you thus! Teach me as you will.”
“Nay, go, Marcus, and teach yourself. Am I a bait to win your soul? The path is not so easy, it is very difficult. Fare you well!”
“May I write to you from Rome?” he asked.
“Yes, why not, if by that time you should care to write, who then will have recovered from this folly of the desert and an idle moon?”
“I shall write and I shall return, and we will talk of these matters; so, most sweet, farewell.”