She kept him at bay with her eyes, though they filled slowly with tears.
“I am a child of the devil!” exclaimed Lily, with vehemence. “I give people trouble and make them suffer!”
“She classes me with 'people'!” Maurice thought. He said, “Have I ever blamed you for anything?”
“No.”
“Then don't blame yourself. I will simply take what you can give me. That is all I could take. Forgive me for loving you too much. I will try to love you less.”
“No,” the girl demurred. “I don't want you to do that.”
“I am very unreasonable,” he said, humbly. “But the rest of the world is a shadow. You are my one reality. There is nothing in the universe but you.”
She brushed her eyes fiercely. “I mustn't cry. I'll have to explain it if I do, and the lids will be red all day.”
The man felt internally seared, as by burning lava, with the conviction that he had staked his all late in life on what could never be really his. She would diffuse herself through many. He was concentrated in her. His passion had its lips burned shut.