“No,” said Sybil swiftly. She had begun to tremble a little, frightened but wildly happy.
“Was it because ... because....” He groped for a moment for words and, finding them, went quickly on, “because you feel as I do?”
She answered him in a whisper. “I don’t know,” she said, and suddenly she felt an overwhelming desire to weep.
“I mean,” he said quietly, “that I feel we were made for each other ... perfectly.”
“Yes ... Jean.”
He did not wait for her to finish. He rushed on, overwhelming her in a quick burst of boyish passion. “I wish it wasn’t necessary to talk. Words spoil everything.... They aren’t good enough.... No, you must take me, Sybil. Sometimes I’m disagreeable and impatient and selfish ... but you must take me. I’ll do my best to reform. I’ll make you happy.... I’ll do anything for you. And we can go away together anywhere in the world ... always together, never alone ... just as we are here, on the top of this hill.”
Without waiting for her to answer, he kissed her quickly, with a warm tenderness that made her weep once more. She said over and over again, “I’m so happy, Jean ... so happy.” And then, shamefacedly, “I must confess something.... I was afraid you’d never come back, and I wanted you always ... from the very beginning. I meant to have you from the beginning ... from that first day in Paris.”
He lay with his head in her lap while she stroked the thick, red hair, in silence. There in the graveyard, high above the sea, they lost themselves in the illusion which overtakes such young lovers ... that they had come already to the end of life ... that, instead of beginning, it was already complete and perfect.
“I meant to have you always ... Jean. And after you came here and didn’t come over to see me ... I decided to go after you ... for fear that you’d escape again. I was shameless ... and a fraud, too.... That morning by the river ... I didn’t come on you by accident. I knew you were there all the while. I hid in the thicket and waited for you.”
“It wouldn’t have made the least difference. I meant to have you, too.” A sudden impatient frown shadowed the young face. “You won’t let anything change you, will you? Nothing that any one might say ... nothing that might happen ... not anything?”