“‘Will you keep it a sacred secret?’ he said. ‘Never to be breathed—never to be known but to you and me?’
“I promised him it should be a secret. I waited in a perfect frenzy of expectation. Twice he tried to begin, and twice his courage failed him.
“‘I can’t!’ he broke out in a wild, helpless way. ‘I can’t tell it!’
“My curiosity, or more likely my temper, got beyond all control. He had irritated me till I was reckless what I said or what I did. I suddenly clasped him close, and pressed my lips to his. ‘I love you!’ I whispered in a kiss. ‘Now will you tell me?’
“For the moment he was speechless. I don’t know whether I did it purposely to drive him wild. I don’t know whether I did it involuntarily in a burst of rage. Nothing is certain but that I interpreted his silence the wrong way. I pushed him back from me in a fury the instant after I had kissed him. ‘I hate you!’ I said. ‘You have maddened me into forgetting myself. Leave me. I don’t care for the darkness. Leave me instantly, and never see me again!’
“He caught me by the hand and stopped me. He spoke in a new voice; he suddenly commanded, as only men can.
“‘Sit down,’ he said. ‘You have given me back my courage—you shall know who I am.’
“In the silence and the darkness all round us, I obeyed him, and sat down.
“In the silence and the darkness all round us, he took me in his arms again, and told me who he was.”
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