She went and stood close up to him.
"What would all the world think of me if I took you at your word? What would you yourself think in the time to come?"
"Isn't every drop of blood in your body burning with the desire to take me in your arms?"
"If I did--afterwards--what then? When I had the consciousness that with my shame I had sullied you?"
"Can't you feel, as I stand here close to you, that I'm all on fire with the longing that you should kiss me as the man kisses the woman who loves him? Do that first--do it first, I tell you! Then, when you've kissed some of the craving out of me--if you only knew how I longed for you to kiss me, you wouldn't keep your lips from the refreshment for which, I believe, they're dying. Kiss me!"
The limit of his powers of resistance had been reached; he did what, from the first, with the whole force of his being, he had longed to do; he took her in his arms.
"Vi!"
"Vi! That's better; say it again, my dear--just like that; say it again, and again, and again! Now, wasn't that worth while?"
She drew herself a little away from him, so that, standing face to face, they held each other's hands.
"Wasn't that worth waiting for?" Her voice dropped to a whisper; she looked at him with eyes which seemed to make him tremble. "Are you going to New South Wales without me?"