“Alexis, be reasonable!”
“I wish I were dead! You have never loved me. All you have ever given me was in pity. If you cared for me, you’d take my gift and wear it.”
An expression of abnegation upon her face, she stooped and picked up the bracelet from where he had flung it on the rug between them. “Alexis, look. See? It is on!”
“Anne, you darling!”
He sprang to his feet, and catching her in his arms, carried her to the sofa.
“Be careful. You will hurt yourself,” she cried breathlessly. “Remember, I am as tall as you are.”
His arms about her, he laughed crazily.
“Ah, but you are light, light as a moonbeam, and as luminous. Light as my heart!”
With a gesture, maternal in its compassion, she wound her arms about his neck, and drawing his face down to hers, offered him her mouth. Teeth pressed against the fruit-like flesh, he ran his lips along her chin and bare shoulder.
“Anne, I am hungry and thirsty for you!”