At the next moment she was holding herself off with her arms stiff about his neck, that she might look at him and at her lace sleeves at the same time. Suddenly a furrow crossed his brow. He had remembered the Father's warning, and was summoning all his strength.
“But out there I'll love you as a sister, Glory.”
“Ah!”
“For the sake of those poor doomed beings cut off from earthly love we'll love each other as the angels love.”
“Yes, that is the highest, purest, truest love, no doubt. Still——”
“What does the old Talmud say?—'He who divorces himself from the joys of earth weds himself to the glories of Paradise.'”
Her lashes were still wet; she was gazing deep into his eyes.
“And to think of being united in the next world, Glory—what happiness, what ecstasy!”
“Love me in this world, dearest,” she whispered.
“You'll be their youth, Glory, their strength, their loveliness!”