ill speak no language but that of an
unfathomable kindness; I saw the faultless face, and, through the robe,
the lines of the faultless body. Night came at last, and in the growing
darkness of the chamber, the sight of her slowly melted; but even then
the touch of her smooth hand lingered in mine and talked with me. To lie
thus in deadly weakness and drink in the traits of the beloved, is to
reawake to love from whatever shock of disillusion. I reasoned with
myself; and I shut my eyes on horrors, and again I was very bold to
accept the worst. What mattered it, if that imperious sentiment
survived; if her eyes still beckoned and attached me; if now, even as
before, every fibre of my dull body yearned and turned to her? Late on
in the night some strength revived in me, and I spoke:--

'Olalla,' I said, 'nothing matters; I ask nothing; I am content; I love
you.'

She knelt down awhile and prayed, and I devoutly respected her devotions.
The moon had begun to shine in upon one side of each of the three
windows, and make a misty clearness in the room, by which I saw her
indistinctly. When she rearose she made the sign of the cross.

'It is for me to speak,' she said, 'and for you to listen. I know; you
can but guess. I prayed, how I prayed for you to leave this place. I
begged it of you, and I know you would have granted me even this; or if
not, O let me think so!'

'I love you,' I said.

'And yet you have lived in the world,' she said; after a pause, 'you are
a man and wise; and I am but a child. Forgive me, if I seem to teach,
who am as ignorant as the trees of the mountain; but those who learn much
do but skim the face of knowledge; they seize the laws, they conceive the
dignity of the design--the horror of the living fact fades from their
memory. It is we who sit at home with evil who remember, I think, and
are warned and pity. Go, rather, go now, and keep me in mind. So I
shall have a life in the cherished places of your memory: a life as much
my own, as that which I lead in this body.'

'I love you,' I said once more; and reaching out my weak hand, took hers,
and carried it to my lips, and kissed it. Nor did she resist, but winced
a little; and I could see her look upon me with a frown that was not
unkindly, only sad and baffled. And then it seemed she made a call upon
her resolution; plucked my hand towards her, herself at the same time
leaning somewhat forward, and laid it on the beating of her he