That glimmer
she saw, but no face of a man.
And then the silence held; every second of it was more than a hundred
spoken words.
Then the calm voice said: "I cannot give him up."
"For the sake of God!"
"God and I have been strangers for a good many years."
"For my sake."
"But you see, I have been lying to myself. I told myself that I was
coming merely to see you once--for the last time. But after I saw you
I had to speak, and now that I have spoken it is hard to leave you,
and now that I am with you I cannot give you up to Pierre le Rouge."
She cried: "What will you have of me?"
He answered with a ring of melancholy: "Friendship? No, I can't take
those white hands--mine are so red. All I can do is to lurk about you
like a shadow--a shadow with a sting that strikes down all other men
who come near you."
She said: "For all men have told me about you, I know you could not do
that."
"Mary, I tell you there are things about me, and possibilities, about
which I don't dare to question myself."
"You have guarded me like a brother.
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