Would you indeed like me to be always with you? To me it would be a
happiness unspeakable; and to you, what would it be?"

I thought that she wished to hear me speak my love to her, and that,
woman-like, she had led me to the utterance, and so I spoke again of the
passion that now raged in me, she listening eagerly as we strained each
other tight in our arms. At last there came a pause, a long, long pause,
and our hearts beat consciously in unison as we stood together.
Presently she said in a sweet, low, intense whisper, as soft as the
sighing of summer wind:

"It shall be as you wish; but oh, my dear, you will have to first go
through an ordeal which may try you terribly! Do not ask me anything!
You must not ask, because I may not answer, and it would be pain to me to
deny you anything. Marriage with such an one as I am has its own ritual,
which may not be foregone. It may . . . " I broke passionately into her
speaking:

"There is no ritual that I fear, so long as it be that it is for your
good, and your lasting happiness. And if the end of it be that I may
call you mine, there is no horror in life or death that I shall not
gladly face. Dear, I ask you nothing. I am content to leave myself in
your hands. You shall advise me when the time comes, and I shall be
satisfied, content to obey. Content! It is but a poor word to express
what I long for! I shall shirk nothing which may come to me from this or
any other world, so long as it is to make you mine!" Once again her
murmured happiness was music to my ears:

"Oh, how you love me! how you love me, dear, dear!" She took me in her
arms, and for a few seconds we hung together. Suddenly she tore herself
apart from me, and stood drawn up to the full height, with a dignity I
cannot describe or express. Her voice had a new dominance, as with firm
utterance and in staccato manner she said:

"Rupert Sent Leger, before we go a step further I must say something to
you, ask you something, and I charge you, on your most sacred honour and
belief, to answer me truly. Do you believe me to be one of those unhappy
beings who may not die, but have to live in shameful existence between
earth and the nether world, and whose hellish mission is to destroy, body
and soul, those who love them till they fall to their level? You are a
gentleman, and a brave one. I have found you fearless. Answer me in
sternest truth, no matter what the issue may be!"

She stood there in