Page:The woman, the man, and the monster (IA womanmanmonster00dawe).pdf/188

 to know my secret. I have been most un- happy, and my unhappiness has been slowly killing the better part of me. Restore it. Give me peace, give me love. It can’t last for ever; it is not the nature of these things. But while it lasts let it be all in all to us.”

“Tt shall be all in all,” he said, “and it shall last. Having found you, my beautiful, I can- not part with you again. All my life I seem to have searched for you. The quest is finished. I am content. For you I seem to have come upon earth, for you I remain. There is noth- ing but you, Andromeda, nothing but you in all the wide world.”

Never a doubt had she of his sincerity, though she looked at him with questioning eyes. The man’s voice quivered as he spoke, the hand that held hers trembled with the joy of an ex- quisite passion. Unresistingly she yielded to him, thrilling at the touch. In the street out- side the traffic rattled by, the patter of feet on the pavement; occasionally a hoarse cry or a blatant laugh leapt in through the open win- dow. But all these passed unheeded. Sum- mer was on field and hedgerow, even there