"Advancing, I gazed upon chair after chair. They were all empty, and not till I reached the further corner did I find her, thrown at full length upon a couch, with her head buried in her arms, and motionless as any stone. Confused, appalled even, for I had never seen her otherwise than erect and mocking, I stumbled back, and would have fled, but that she suddenly arose, and flinging back her head, gave me one look, which I felt rather than saw, and bursting into a peal of laughter, called me to account for disturbing the first minute of rest she had known that day.
"I was dumfounded. If she had consulted all her wiles, and sought for the one best way to silence me, she could not have chanced on one surer than this. I gazed at her quite helpless, and forgot--actually forgot--what had drawn me into her presence, and only asked to get a good glimpse of her face, which, in the dim light, was more like that of a spirit than of a woman--a mocking spirit, in whom no love could lodge, whatever my fancy might have pictured in the delirium of the moment that had just passed.
"She seemed to comprehend my mood, for she flung back the curtain and drew herself up to her full height before me.
"'Did you think I was playing the coquette?' she asked. 'Well, perhaps I was; women like me must have their amusements; but--'
"Oh! the languishment in that _but_. I shut my eyes as I heard it. I could neither bear its sound, nor the sight of her face.
"'You listened to him. He was making love to you--he, the promised husband of another; and you--'
"'And I?' she repeated, with an indescribable emphasis that called up the blushes to my cheek.
"'And you,' I went on, answering her demand without hesitation, 'the beloved of an honest man who would die to keep you true, and will die if you play him false!'
"She sighed. Softness took the place of scorn; she involuntarily held out her hand.
"I was amazed; she had never done so much before. I seized that hand, I pressed it wildly, hungrily, and with lingering fondness.
"'Do you not know that you are everything to me?' I asked. 'That to win you I am ready to do everything, barter anything, suffer anything but shame! You are my fate, Marah; will you not let me be yours?'