She was his for ever. This barrier being surmounted, innumerable
delights lay before them both.
"I'm not finer," he answered. "I'm only older, lazier; a man, not a
woman."
"A man," she repeated, and a curious sense of possession coming over
her, it struck her that she might now touch him; she put out her hand
and lightly touched his cheek. His fingers followed where hers had been,
and the touch of his hand upon his face brought back the overpowering
sense of unreality. This body of his was unreal; the whole world was
unreal.
"What's happened?" he began. "Why did I ask you to marry me? How did it
happen?"
"Did you ask me to marry you?" she wondered. They faded far away from
each other, and neither of them could remember what had been said.
"We sat upon the ground," he recollected.
"We sat upon the ground," she confirmed him. The recollection of sitting
upon the ground, such as it was, seemed to unite them again, and they
walked on in silence, their minds sometimes working with difficulty and
sometimes ceasing to work, their eyes alone perceiving the things round
them. Now he would attempt again to tell her his faults, and why he
loved her; and she would describe what she had felt at this time or at
that time, and together they would interpret her feeling. So beautiful
was the sound of their voices that by degrees they scarcely listened
to the words they framed.
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