sleeps.
If the wet didn't patter so from the trees we'd hear it snoring. It's
dreaming such stupid things--stupid judgments. It doesn't know we are
passing, we two--free of it--clear of it. You and I!"

We pressed against each other reassuringly.

"I'm glad we're dead," she whispered. "I'm glad we're dead. I was tired
of it, dear. I was so tired of it, dear, and so entangled."

She stopped abruptly.

We splashed through a string of puddles. I began to remember things I
had meant to say.

"Look here!" I cried. "I want to help you beyond measure. You are
entangled. What is the trouble? I asked you to marry me. You said you
would. But there's something."

My thoughts sounded clumsy as I said them.

"Is it something about my position?... Or is it
something--perhaps--about some other man?"

There was an immense assenting silence.

"You've puzzled me so. At first--I mean quite early--I thought you meant
to make me marry you."

"I did."

"And then?"

"To-night," she said after a long pause, "I can't explain. No! I can't
explain. I love you! But--explanations! To-night my dear, here we are in
the world alone--and the world doesn't matter. Nothing matters. Here I
am in the cold with you and my bed away there deserted. I'd tell you--I
will tell you when things enable me to tell you, and soon enough they
will. But to-night--I won't--I won't."

She left my side and went in front of me.

She turned upon me. "Look here," she said, "I insist upon your being
dead. Do you understand? I'm not joking. To-night you and I are out
of life. It's our time together. There may be other times, but this we
won't spoil. We're--in Hades if you like. Where there's nothing to
hide and nothing to tell. No bodies even. No bothers. We loved each
other--down there--and were kept apart, but now it doesn't matter. It's
over.... If you won't agree to that--I will go home."

"I wanted," I began.

"I know. Oh! my dear, if you'd only understand I understand. If you'd
only not care--and love me to-night."

"I do love you," I said.

"Then LOVE me," she answered, "and leave all the things that bother you.
Love me! Here I am!"

"But!--"

"No!" she said.

"Well, have your way."

So she carried her point, and we wandered into the night together and
Beatrice talked to me of love....

I'd never heard a woman before in all my life who could talk of love,
who could lay bare and develop and touch with imagination all that mass
of fine em