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Page 20
"Ah!" whispered Stella, the picture seemed one of heaven, that was
all.
"You must have freedom to assert your individuality, Stella," he
continued. "I can but show you the way and give you a new point of
view, but I will never try to rule you and drag you to mine. I
will never put any chains upon you but those of love. Do they
sound as if they would be too heavy, dearest?"
"I think not," she said very low. "I feel as though I were looking
into a beautiful garden from the top of an ugly, barren, cold
mountain. I shall like to come down and go in among the unknown
flowers."
"It will be so glorious for us," he said exultantly, "because we
have still all the interesting things to find out about each
other,--" And then, her sweet face so very near him, the
temptation to caress her became too intense; he quivered and
changed his position, clasping his hands.
"Darling," he said hoarsely, "we must soon go back to the company,
because, although I count always upon my will to make my actions
obey it, still I can hardly prevent myself from seizing you in my
arms and kissing your tender lips--and that I must not do--as
yet."
Stella drew herself together, the temptation was convulsing her
also, though she did not guess it. She looked up into his blue
eyes there in the shadow, and saw the deep reverence in them, and
she understood and loved him with her soul.
He did not so much as touch her dress; indeed, now that he had won
his fight, he moved a little further from her--and resumed his
calm voice:
"The first thing we shall do is to stroll back through the people
and find the aunt--I will then leave you with her, and soon it
will be time to go home. Do not make much conversation with any of
them to-night--leave everything to me. I will see the Rev. Mr.
Medlicott when we return to the hotel. Whatever they say to you
to-morrow, remain firm in your simple determination to break your
engagement. Argue with them not at all. I will see your uncle in
the morning and demand your hand; they will be shocked, horrified,
scandalized--we will make no explanations. If they refuse their
consent, then you must be brave, and the day after to-morrow you
must come to my sister. She will have arrived by then; she was in
Paris, and I telegraphed for her to join me immediately; the
Princess Urazov she is called. She will receive you with
affection, and you will stay with her until the formalities can be
arranged, when we shall be married, and--but I cannot permit
myself to think of the joy of that--for the moment."
Stella's eyes, with trust and love, were now gazing into his, and
he rose abruptly to his feet.
"You may, when you are alone, again think that it is heartless to
go quite contrary to your relations like this, because they have
brought you up, but remember that marriage is an act which can
mean almost life or death to a woman, and that no human beings
have any right to coerce you in this matter. You are of age and so
am I, and we are only answerable to God and to the laws of our
countries, not to individuals."
"I will try to think of it like that," said Stella, greatly moved,
and then, with almost childish irrelevance, which touched him
deeply, she asked, "What must I call you, please?"
"Oh, you sweetest star!" he exclaimed, "do not tempt me too
strongly--I love you wildly and I want to fold you in my arms--and
explain everything with your little head here on my breast--but I
must not--must not yet. Call me Sasha--say it now that I may hear
its sound in your tender voice--and we must fly, fly back to the
lights--or I cannot answer for myself."
She whispered it softly, and a shiver ran through all his tall
frame--and he said, with tender masterfulness:
"Say, 'Sasha, I love,'" and this she did, also--and then he almost
brusquely placed her hand upon his arm, and led her among the
people, and so to her frowning relations, and then he bowed a
correct good-night.
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