Page:The woman, the man, and the monster (IA womanmanmonster00dawe).pdf/187

 Andromeda; every scrap of you is more pre- cious to me than my own life. Why, I have only begun to live since I met you. You have filled my life with your own joyousness and beauty. I couldn’t part from you now, my dear.” He caught her closer, kissing cheek and chin and neck and eyes. “What wonderful lids you have,” he said. “When they roll back they are like the shutters of heaven. I want you, Andromeda; I want you always to be near me. There must be not the remotest possi- bility of our separation.”

“Why should there be?”

“Because I have no hold on you.”

“Only the strongest. ‘That other hold—the legal one—would not weigh so greatly with. me. I could not suffer a man I did not love. Love makes all things easy, Perseus—even shame.”

“There must be no shame. Now do you understand?”

“There is none. We have blotted out the word. This is summer, Perseus; the earth is. singing with joy. Let us sing with it. Be content,” she continued earnestly; “take me for what I am. It would profit you nothing