“But I believe you, I believe you!” she exclaimed.
She laughed a laugh of rapture. In her soul a sun seemed to be shooting forth rays on every side. She placed her arm tenderly about his neck and kissed his forehead with a chaste caress.
For one moment he seemed to forget everything. He too rose, took her in his arms, almost savagely, and clasped her suddenly to him, as if he were about to crush her against his breast. She just caught sight of his sad eyes; then she saw nothing more, blinded by the kisses of his mouth, which scorched her whole face as though with sparks of fire. With the sun-rapture of her soul was mingled a bliss of earth, a yielding to the violence of his embrace. But the thought flashed across her of what she would lose if she yielded. She released herself, put him away and said:
“And now ... go.”
He felt stunned; he understood that he had no choice:
“Yes, yes, I am going,” he said. “I may write to you, may I not?”
She nodded yes, with her smile:
“Write to me, I shall write to you too,” she said. “Let me always hear from you....”
“Then these are not to be the last words between us? This ... this ... is not the end?”
“No.”