Page:H.M. The Patrioteer.djvu/89

Rh dare to do so. Could I have laid the people too on their backs? They all have such eyes and sometimes—" She hid her face on his breast, "Even you have."

He felt a lump in his throat. His hand sought her neck and his voice trembled. "Agnes! my sweetest, you cannot know how much I love you. &hellip; I was afraid of you, indeed I was! For three whole years I longed for you, but you were too beautiful for me, too fine, too good. &hellip;" His heart melted and he told her everything that he had written to her after her first visit, in the letter which still lay in his desk. She had raised herself and was listening to him enchanted, with her lips parted. Softly she rejoiced: "I knew it, you are like that, you are like me!"

"We belong to one another," said Diederich, pressing her to him, but he was frightened by his own words. "Now," he thought, "she will expect me to speak!" He wanted to do so, but felt powerless. The pressure of his arms around her back grew weaker. &hellip; She made a movement and he knew that she no longer expected him to speak. They drew away from one another with averted faces. Suddenly Diederich buried his face in his hands and sobbed. She did not ask why, but soothingly stroked his hair. That lasted quite a while.

Speaking over his head into space, Agnes said: "Did I ever say that I thought it would last? It must end badly because it has been so beautiful." He broke out in desperation. "But it is not over!"

"Do you believe in luck?" she asked.

"Never again, if I lose you!"

She murmured: "You will go away out into the world and forget me."

"I would rather die!"—and he drew her closer. She whispered against his cheek:

"Look how wide the water is here, like a lake. Our boat has got loose of itself and has led us far out. Do you still