She seemed seized by some hysterical passion that convulsed her, and in mingled amazement, alarm and distress, I sprang to her and caught her hands in my own.
“Sibyl, Sibyl!” I said—“Hush—hush! You are overwrought with fatigue and excitement,—you cannot know what you are saying. My darling, what do you take me for?—what is all this nonsense in your mind about buying and selling? You know I love you,—I have made no secret of it,—you must have seen it in my face,—and if I have hesitated to speak, it is because I feared your rejection of me. You are too good for me, Sibyl,—too good for any man,—I am not worthy to win your beauty and innocence. My love, my love—do not give way in this manner”—for as I spoke she clung to me like a wild bird suddenly caged—“What can I say to you, but that I worship you with all the strength of my life,—I love you so deeply that I am afraid to think of it; it is a passion I dare not dwell upon, Sibyl,—I love you too well,—too madly for my own peace——”
I trembled, and was silent,—her soft arms clinging to me [p 200] robbed me of a portion of my self-control. I kissed the rippling waves of her hair; she lifted her head and looked up at me, her eyes alit with some strange lustre that was not love as much as fear,—and the sight of her beauty thus yielded as it were to my possession, broke down the barriers of restraint I had hitherto imposed upon myself. I kissed her on the lips,—a long passionate kiss that, to my excited fancy, seemed to mingle our very beings into one,—but while I yet held her in my arms, she suddenly released herself and pushed me back. Standing apart from me she trembled so violently that I feared she would fail,—and I took her hand and made her sit down. She smiled,—a very wan smile.
“What did you feel then?” she asked.
“When, Sibyl?”
“Just now,—when you kissed me?”
“All the joys of heaven and fires of hell in a moment!” I said.
She regarded me with a curious musing frown.
“Strange! Do you know what I felt?”
I shook my head smiling, and pressed my lips on the soft small hand I held.