e, so that no immediate reply was
possible. He did not attempt to make a reply until they had gone into a
small drawing room, and she had flung off her wrap. They were alone.

Then he knelt on the rug before her and took both her hands in his
own--a hand in each of his hands--as they lay on her dress. His face was
close to hers: she was in a low chair. Each could hear the sound of the
other's breathing--the sound of the other's heart-beats. That duet went
on for some minutes--the most perfect music in life--the music which is
life itself--the music by which man becomes immortal.

"Do not hold me any longer, Bertie," said she. "Kiss me and go
away--away. Oh, why should you ever come back? I believe that, if you
loved me, you would go away and never come back. Oh, what is this farce
that is being played between us? It is unworthy of either of us!"

"A farce? A tragedy!" said he. "I want you, Ella. I told you that I
could not live without you."

"You want me? You want me, Bertie?" said she. Tears were in her eyes and
in her voice, for there was to her a passion of pathos in those words
of his. "You want me, and you know that it is only my soul that shall be
lost if I give myself to you. God has decreed that only the soul of the
woman pays the penalty of the man's longing for her."

"You soul shall be saved, not lost," said he. "At present it is your
soul that is in peril, when you give your sweetness to the man whom you
have ceased to love--ah! whom you never loved. You will save your soul
with me."

"I shall lose it for all eternity," said she. "Do you think that I
complain? Do you fancy for a moment that I grumble at the decree of God,
or that I rail against it as unjust?"

"You are a woman."

"I am a woman, and therefore you know I will one day be ready to lose my
soul for you, Bertie, my love. Oh, my dear, dear love, you say you want
me?"

"Oh, my God!"

He had sprung to his feet and was pacing the room before her.

"You say that you want me. Oh, my love, my love, do you fancy for a
moment that your longing for me is anything to be compared to my longing
for you?"

"My beloved, my beloved!"

His arms were about her. His lips were upon hers. She kissed him as he
kissed her.

Then she turned her head away so that his kisses fell upon her cheek
instead of her mouth. She turned it still farther and they fell upon her
neck--it was exquisite in its shape--and lay there like red rose-leaves
clinging to a ca