"You must not say that," she whispered. "You must not say anything against Life—the life God made!"
And strangely, in the midst of this new and overwhelming trouble, Monsalvat tasted happiness. Nacha loved him! And Nacha for her part wondered how it was that she had never before known how great was her love for this man, who sat there blind and silent before her. It was better that it should have come about in such a fashion, better that her love had so delayed in revealing itself. Now it could soften the blow Fate was dealing him!
"I want you to listen," she said. "I have found the answer...."
Monsalvat turned towards her as if to look at her. No words came from his lips but his expression showed that he felt he was in the presence of something surpassingly beautiful, something which was to consecrate his life. His heart-beats quickened. In that silence he lived with an intensity that crowded years into those few moments. His soul was waiting, with an anxiety mixed with pain and faith and love; and there was in this pause something of that breathless suspense which comes before a storm, or descends upon an artist as he listens to the voices crying out to him to create them in beauty.
In the darkness around him he heard Nacha's voice, warm with emotion, but confident, resolute.
"Once, more than a year ago, you asked me something. I refused then, though I loved you in my heart!... It was because I did not want to hurt you, to spoil your chance in life. You had given everything you had for me, and lost everything through me. Now I can ask the same thing of you...."
She stopped. In a flash the future swept before her: she saw Monsalvat as he was, sick, blind, forever incapable of earning enough to live on; alone in the world, with nothing before him but suffering and endless night. She grew pale and looked away.
"Now I want you ... to marry me ..." she said slowly.
He dropped his head and was silent. For some time neither of them stirred. Neither cared to break that pause in which the tragedy of each of their lives was to find its solution.
"No!" he said at last.