He did not touch the hand. It fell.
"Theodora," he whispered hoarsely. "You will never know how I love you! I am not as evil as I seem. But there are moments when I lose control and madness chokes my better self, in the hopeless hunt for your love. Theodora—bury the past! Give up this baleful existence—live with me again."
She laughed a shrill laugh.
"Your concubine! And you have the courage to ask this?"
"You know I love the very ground you tread on."
"Is that all you have to tell me?"
"Is not that enough?"
"No—it is not enough!" she replied with flashing eyes. "Between us stand the barriers of eternity!"
He paled.
"Do not dismiss me like this. It is far more cruel than you know. If you kill my hope, you leave me a prey to the devils of jealousy and madness,—the evil things of your own creation! Come back to me! I only ask the love you gave me once,—the love you thought you gave me,—a grain, a crumb."