Page:In a Glass Darkly - v2.djvu/165

Rh masked and robed so that my own brother could not have known me!

"You said I loved some one. Am I loved in return?" I asked.

"Try."

I was speaking lower than before, and stood near the dark man with the beard, to prevent the necessity of his speaking in a loud key.

"Does any one love me?" I repeated.

"Secretly," was the answer.

"Much or little?" I inquired.

"Too well."

"How long will that love last?"

"Till the rose casts its leaves."

"The rose—another allusion!"

"Then—darkness!" I sighed. "But till then I live in light."

"The light of violet eyes,"

Love, if not a religion, as the oracle had just pronounced it, is, at least, a