Page:The Eyes of Innocence.djvu/139

Rh side by side. Then Guillaume said: "It was more than I could bear. I wanted to see you, if only for a few minutes ... and to gather fresh courage ..."

She asked, in a voice that did not sound like her own:

"Then ... you are going back? ..."

"I intended to ... but I can't now ... I can't now ..."

He continued, almost in a whisper:

"It's not weakness. But I am seeing you; and to see you is to see things and ideas as they are. You flood them with the light which is in you and which springs from you. Yes, I tried to escape the temptation and I had a wild desire to work in solitude, so as to achieve the wealth and fame that would have permitted me to marry you. And now ... and now I see that it is all madness. Why suffer uselessly? Let us struggle together, Gilberte. I can do nothing without you ... I am too much in love with you."