"Let me stay quiet by you a little," she whispered. "Let me love you quiet a little."
"Tell me you love me, and I'm satisfied," he said.
She sank down beside him and kissed him softly on the lips. "I love you! I love you! I love you!" she murmured, with such passion as he had never dreamed of hearing on the lips of a woman. "I love you the first time I see you! Always it near kill me to make out I do not love you! I love you till I die!"
They were silent for a space, clinging to each other, cheek to cheek in the darkness, their breasts tossing on stormy sighs.
He said brokenly at last: "Nahnya, this is the strongest thing in the world. Nothing else matters. You must not leave me!"
She partly raised herself, and put a gentle hand over his mouth. "In your heart you know I mus' go," she whispered. "In your heart you know ver' well there mus' not be anything between you and me! Do not spoil our little time together by speaking of it!"
His head rolled impatiently on the ground. "I cannot live without you," he muttered. "I will not live without you!"
She kissed him. "Yes, you will," she said softly. "You will promise me now to live the best life you can. Because I am going to live, and always I want think of you living brave and happy and curing the sick!"
"Happy!" he said bitterly.
"It will come," she said, with quiet certainty.