Beyond the Rocks

"Oh, forgive me!" he pleaded. "Oh, please forgive me! I am mad, I think,

I love you so--and I had to tell you--and yes, I will say it all now,

and then you can punish me. From the first moment I looked into your

angel eyes it has been growing, you are so true and so sweet, and so

miles beyond all other women in the world. Each minute I have loved you

more--and all the time I thought to win you. Yes, you may well turn

away, and shrink from me now that you know the brute I am. I thought I

would make you love me, and you would forgive me then. But I have

suddenly seen your soul, my darling, and I am ashamed, and I can only

ask you to forgive me and let me worship you and be your slave--I will

not ask for any return--only to worship you and be your slave--that I

may show you I am not all brute and may earn your pardon."

And then Theodora's blindness fell from her and she knew that she loved

him--she had faced the fact at last. And all over her being there

thrilled a mad, wild joy. It surged up and crushed out fear and

pain--for just one moment--and then she too, in her turn, covered her

face with her hands.

"Oh, hush! hush!" she said. "What have you done--what have we both

done!"

It was characteristic of her that now she realized she loved him she did

not fence any longer, she never thought of concealing it from him or of

blaming him. They were sinners both, he and she equally guilty.

Another woman might have argued, "He is fooling me; perhaps he has said

these things before--I must at least hide my own heart," but not

Theodora. Her trust was complete--she loved him--therefore he was a

perfect knight--and if he was wicked she was wicked too.

Her gentian eyes were full of tears as she let fall her hands and looked

at him. "Oh yes, I have been asleep--I should have known from the

beginning why, why I wanted to see you so much--I should never have

come--and I should have understood in the wood that we could not leave

it without bringing Love with us--and now we may not be happy any more."

And then it was his turn to be exalted with wild joy.

"Do you know what you have said," he whispered, breathless. "Your words

mean that you love me--Theodora--darling mine." And once again passion

blazed in his eyes, and he would have taken her in his arms; but she put

up her hands and gently pushed him from her.