"You've come!" he breathed.
"I am mad! I am foolish!" she faltered.
He apprehended that the slightest thing would send her flying back again. By turning a little he managed to reach her hand and to pull it down to his lips. Her fingers crept eagerly inside his, as she had never allowed them to do before. She had confessed nothing with her voice yet, but her whole being breathed a passionate warmth over him that made him dizzy with happiness.
"Nahnya, darling, untie my hands," he whispered.
"No!" she said tremulously.
He pleaded with her urgently.
Her trembling hand stroked his cheek with a touch like flower petals. "Ah, do not make me fight you now," she begged. "I so tire of fighting you, Ralph. You know if I let you free, you not let me go back. I must go back! Do not make me sorry I come!"
"This is harder to bear than Joe Mixer's tortures!" he bitterly complained.
She tried to disengage the hand he clung to. "If you say that, I must go now," she whispered sadly.
It terrified him. "No! No! Anything you want!" he said swiftly.