"
"Why?"
"In order to make me suffer the more. You will never forgive me now, for
you know that I know, and that alone is a sin past all forgiveness, and
over and above that I am guilty of the crime of loving when you have no
love for me."
"And as a last resource you come to me and recapitulate your misdeeds.
The plan is certainly original, though it lacks wit."
"There is least wit where there is most love, Unorna. I take no account
of the height of my folly when I see the depth of my love, which has
swallowed up myself and all my life. In the last hour I have known its
depth and breadth and strength, for I have seen what it can bear. And
why should I complain of it? Have I not many times said that I would die
for you willingly--and is it not dying for you to die of love for you?
To prove my faith it were too easy a death. When I look into your face I
know that there is in me the heart that made true Christian martyrs----"
Unorna laughed.
"Would you be a martyr?" she asked.
"Nor for your Faith--but for the faith I once had in you, and for the
love that no martyrdom could kill. Ay--to prove that love I would die a
hundred deaths--and to gain yours I would die the death eternal."
"And you would have deserved it. Have you not deserved enough already,
enough of martyrdom, for tracking me to-day, following me stealthily,
like a thief and a spy, to find out my ends and my doings?"
"I love you, Unorna.
Pages:
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267