She shuddered at such a descent.
"Would you go back and be the waiting spider forever in the yellow-brown studio, breaking your heart in the little room when some woman chooses to bring you news of men and the world? You would not descend to woman's purest prerogative?… Greater women than you shall come, and they shall avail themselves of that, and their children shall be great in the land…."
"Oh, what a world, and what a fool!" Beth said aloud.
"Why?"
She turned at his quick, imperious tone.
"I don't—I don't know. It just came!"
Beth bit her lip, and shut her eyes. There was a booming in her brain, as from cataracts and rapids. His face had made her suddenly weak, but there was something glorious in being carried along in this wild current. She had battled so long. She was no longer herself, but part of him. The face she had seen was white; the eyes dark and piercing, terrible in their concentration of power, but not terrible to her. All the magic from the sunlight had come to them. They were the eyes which command brute matter…. The Other had become a giant; this man a god.
"What a day!" she whispered.
"Let's ride on!" he said swiftly.
The horses whirled about at his word. As his hand touched hers, she felt the thrill of it, in her limbs and scalp. He lifted her to the saddle. There was something invincible in his arms. The strength he used was nothing compared to that which was reserved….