ht from books.

[Sidenote: _Francis Hume to Zoe Montrose_]

I have read your last letter, but I only half understand you, and I
must wholly disobey. For I have learned the meaning of all things
created, the sky and the earth, the stars that are the habitations of
loving angels, and the worm who seeks his mate. I love you! It is that
for which I have lived my twenty years. At last, without warning, my
life has flowered, and the fragrance of the blossom intoxicates me, its
color blinds. At first I only knew the earth was changed, and that I
could never be the same; but I did not translate the knowledge. All the
poets had not told me enough; Shakespeare had not prepared me. But last
night--do I ever sleep now?--when I lay thinking, thinking, and always
of you, my soul spoke and said to me, "So great a thing must be
eternal. This longing is like a Beethoven Sonata; it will live and
live, growing in glory and color, through the ages, even if it live in
your soul alone." And I woke to the sense of it all, and spoke aloud:
"It is love!" It is like having a treasure given me to be all my own;
for now I have a word for happy use, and I can say over and over, "I
love you," and so tell you all. I can whisper "Beloved" in the brief
pauses when the others are with us and I have only the chance of a word
in your ear. But let me see you next alone. Let me look into your eyes,
and demand whether your soul also has had revelation of the truth.

[Sidenote: _Zoe Montrose to Francis Hume_]

I ask myself whether this had to come to you so soon, and whether I
could have prevented it. I am afraid not. You were bound to fancy the
first woman you met, and that woman chanced to be Zoe Montrose. I know
exactly how it was. I have yellow hair, and the sun shone on it. There
is always a reason, if one could follow it far enough. It might have
been Clara. She was with me in the boat, if you remember; only the sun
struck her hair at a different angle, and you never discovered how red
it is in the hollows, how like leaf mould without. _Bismillah!_ the
gods have selected me for your enlightenment, and their will be done. I
am glad for you in one particular only. I am a worldly woman, filled
from the crown to the toe topful of earthly wisdom; but I am not of
those sentimental sirens who, in the strictest good-breeding, turn men
into beasts by dallying with their worship, and then leaving them high
and dry on the rock of disillusionment. I am honest, a