Her passionate earnestness burned like bright flames about him, gradually warming his heart to life again.
"Kyllikki, how good you are!" he said, and his eyes glistened as he spoke. "You are all I have in life—without you, I should be lost. If only—if only I could be sure of one thing…."
"What is it—tell me, Olof…?"
"That—that you do not despise me, but trust me, that you believe I only care to be yours."
"Trust you?—indeed I do," said Kyllikki. "I know we are both striving toward the same end. But there are enemies that are always on the watch. We must beat them—and we will! And I am yours—all yours—as the night when you said good-bye to Kohiseva. And you are mine—all mine … and then, Olof—then it will come—the one thing I must have to live for…."
OUT OF THE PAST
"KIRKKALA, 7 May 1899."
"Dearest,—You will not be angry because I write to you? How could you, you who are so good! I would not have written, but I must, for there is so much to tell you. It is spring now, as it was then, and it has brought with it such a longing that I must turn to you, speak to you—and then I can wait again till next spring. You must have known that I have been with you—surely you felt it? And now here I am, having learned by chance where you are.
"Do you remember the story I told you? About the girl and her lover and the mark on her breast? And what I asked for then, and you gave me? I have often wondered since whether, perhaps, you might have misunderstood it all—when I was so serious and thoughtful about it—if you thought I was not certain of myself, not sure that I should always be yours, as I wished to be. But it was not so, dear Olof; I knew myself well enough even then, though not so deeply as I do now. How strong and deep love is! I read once in a poem—surely you know it too:
"'The lightning stroke falls swifter than breath,
But the tree that is struck bears the mark till its death.'"