"Cut off a bit of my hair," he had said, "and give it to me to kiss. Ah, thanks! that is all right. Tell her I was not a bit afraid, that I remembered the--_prayer_ she used to teach me, and I feel somehow that--that it is all right, you know. Put the hair in a bit of paper and send it to her. Be sure you tell her it is all right. You know it is, don't you? _Be sure_ you tell her."
And Mollie had promised, and the boy had closed his blue eyes and gone off to sleep like a baby. Now he was dead, and Mollie had the little lock of hair pinned inside the bosom of her dress. She was standing so when Strause came up and stood by her side. He gave her a look, saw that she was very faint and tired, and rushed into the little surgery, where restoratives, beef tea, bovril, etc., were to be found.
He mixed a cup of bovril, and brought it to her.
"Drink this," he said. "You are doing more than mortal woman can be expected to do. You must go and lie down for a few hours."
She drank the bovril and returned him the empty cup.
"Who would not be good to you?" he replied.
She did not answer; she was looking far away. He doubted if she heard him. The utter calm, the quietness of her attitude, impressed while it maddened him. His passion rose in a great tide. He suddenly took her hand.
"Don't you know?" he said--"don't you know?"
"Don't I know what, Major Strause? I don't understand," she said, and she gave him a bewildered glance.
"O Mollie!" he cried, "don't you know what I think of you? Don't you know that there is not in all this world a more magnificent woman than you? Mollie, I love you. Mollie, don't turn away. I worship you--I love you--I would die for you. I can't do more. Just give me a vestige of hope, and there is not a thing I would not do--not a thing. Say you love me back--say you love me back! Look at me. O my darling, my darling, how I love you!"
"Hush!" she said then; "you have no right to use such words. And now, who can think of such things? Major Strause, forget you ever said them."
"Forget," he said, "when my heart is on fire! I cannot see you without the maddest passion rising up in my heart. I have loved you from the first hour we met. Only give me hope, and I won't worry you until we are out of this horrid place."