"I ought to. … But if you are in great spiritual distress, and if you really and truly repent, and if you humble desire to expiate your sin by doing — penance——" And hesitated: "Do you so desire?"
"Yes, I do."
"Humbly? Contritely?"
"Yes."
"Very well. Say `Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.'"
"Mea maxima culpa," he said so earnestly, looking up into her face that she bent lower over the sill to see him.
"Let me come up, Eve," he said.
She strove to laugh, gazing down into his shadowy face — but suddenly the desire had left her, — and all her gaiety left her, too, suddenly, leaving only a still excitement in her breast.
"You - you knew I was just laughing," she said unsteadily. "You understood, didn't you?"
"I don't know."