“I love you, Maria, I only love you.”
“Oh!” she exclaimed, with emotion; “as once upon a time, as once upon a time?”
Pressed to him, closed as in a vice in his arms, he kissed her on the hair, the eyes, the mouth, murmuring—
“I love you, Maria, as at first, as always, for ever, I love you.”
Radiant with joy, crying with joy, she threw back her head as if inebriated.
“You are mine, Maria, it is true?”
“Yours, yours, yours.”
“No one else’s ever?”
“No one else’s.”
“I shall never let you be taken by any one, Maria.”