I love you. This is
what I would say if I were to die to-morrow."
He was very close to her now, and his eyes were looking into her
eyes. She answered him frankly:
"If you were to die to-morrow, I might tell you this much to-night.
A woman may love a man because he is brave, or because he is comely,
or because he is wise, or gentle--for a thousand thousand reasons.
But the best of all reasons for a woman loving a man is just because
she loves him, without rhyme and without reason, because heaven
wills it, because earth fulfils it, because his hand is of the right
size to hold her heart in its hollow."
The lovers' hands were closely clasped, the lovers' lips were very
near to meeting. Only the god Pan smiled and sneered as if he knew
that sometimes lovers' lips fail to meet even when the space between
fervent mouth and mouth is no bigger than a rose-leaf.
"Katherine," Villon whispered, and drew her closer to him. Love,
happiness, life were coming to his arms as to a shrine.
In the sudden bliss that had come upon both the lovers they paid no
heed to a footstep upon the terrace, till a voice struck like a
sword-stroke across their ecstasy, the voice of Noel le Jolys.
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