She had fallen suddenly into such a storm of hot caresses that her breath failed her as if a hailstorm were beating down on her. She pushed him away, and at the same time nestled closer to him.
"Do you love me, then? Do you love me?" she asked him, trembling and shaken.
"Do I love you? For heaven's sake, would not any one love anything so young and wonderful when he sees it and feels it? What do you think? Skin and hair with the scent of May in them!"
She freed herself from his arms and walked silently by his side for a little way. "Do you love me?" she asked again, as shaken and distraught as he was. "Do you know me? Do you know what I want in life?"
"You want me!" he said passionately.
She wanted to speak, she tried--tried--tried, but her excitement was too great. "Do you wish to be my friend?" she said at last, anxiously.
"Yes--of course I do!" he answered.
"Will you teach me how to think? I want to be as much alive as you are."
"Silly child!" He would have taken her in his arms again; but she kept him off with passionate refusal.
"I love you because you are different from the others, and so that you may speak to me as to a friend, as to a human being."