“‘I? Has not Christ died?’
“Charmides hath fallen in love with this slave, but it was love so different from any love which he had felt before for a woman, that it ought to have had some other name. It was a love of the soul, of that which was immortal, of God in her; it was a love too, of no mere temporary phenomenon, but of reality outlasting death into eternity. There was thus a significance, there was a grandeur in it wanting to any earthly love. It was the new love with which men were henceforth to love women—the love of Dante for Beatrice.
“She waited at the door while he went inside to fetch in the parchment. He brought it out and gave it to her, and as he stood opposite to her he looked in her face, and her eyes were not averted. He caught her hand, but she drew back.
“‘’Tis but for a day or two,’ she said; ‘a week will see the end.’
“‘A week!’ he cried! ‘Oh, my Demariste, rather a week with thee than an age with anything less than thee!’
“‘You will have to die too. Dare you die? The spirit may be willing, but the flesh may be weak.’
“‘Death? Yes, death, if only I am yours!’
“‘Nay, nay, my beloved, not for me, but for the Lord Jesus!’
“He bent nearer to her; his head was on her neck, and his arms were round her body. Oh, son and daughter of Time! oh, son and daughter of Eternity!
“He had hardly returned to his house, when he was interrupted by his friend Callippus, just a little the worse for wine.