“Why—why—did you? Oh, you do not know! You do not understand—love—love—can it be won this way—apprenticed, bargained—given away?”
“You must go with him, he loves you. He will make you happy. I am dying—is not part of me already dead?”
For answer she came to him, closer, and stood by him as one who in war stands by a comrade shot through and ready to fall.
He put his arms around her and drew her to him closer, and she did not resist—but as a child would, hers also she wound around his neck and whispered:
“My lion! Oh, kill me—kill me—let me die with you!”
“Child—my precious one—my—oh, God, and you—forgive me this. But let me kiss you once and dream—dream it is she”—
She felt his kisses on her hair, her eyes.
“Good-bye—Alice—Alice—good-bye—forever—”
He released her, but she clung to him sobbing. Her head lay on his breast, and she shook in the agony of it all.
“You will forgive me, some day—when you know—how I loved her,” he gasped, white and with a bitter light in his face.