She rose from her seat, and drew nearer to him.
She looked through his eyes, and the depth of his devotion seemed unfathomable. She could doubt no longer.
She raised her face to his, and he covered it with kisses.
Then he whispered to her, “Tell me what more I must do or promise. Must love such as ours await some ceremonial for its fulfilment? This is to me the beginning of life. Choose thou for us what form the marriage-rites shall take, for I, alas! know nothing.”
At once the spell was broken, for Daphne remembered the horrible unions which the haters of women had hitherto made. She shrank from Thoth, and cried—
“Leave me! leave me! How can I forget that the women of thy race have been wooed with torture, and that thou thyself in all likelihood hast gone through rites of ingenious cruelty. I cannot believe in a future that rests on such a past.”
But Thoth rejoined with passionate eagerness, and with every sign of truth, “Believe me, Daphne, I myself ordained none of these things.”
“But,” she said, “thou hast permitted these terrible customs to live, and thy fellow-rulers have been guilty.”
“Canst thou not,” he replied, “separate the past from the future? I, at least, have not offended, in this manner.”
But Daphne made no response, and Thoth continued—