“That is long since past, and I have become a different being.”
She shrank back, and said—
“At least, say that it was thy companions—that thine own hands are guiltless.”
“Surely thou didst know before that I alone did it,” he said.
Horror seized her, and she cried—
“How can I forget? How can I dwell with thee or love thee?”
But he said with passionate entreaty—
“Now I am altogether different. Since I knew thee, it is as if I had been born again.”
But she looked at him with dismay and undisguised terror.
“Alas! these are empty words, and the dreadful deed cannot be undone. How can a man be born again?”