'Why do you
talk to me as if I were a child? I know hardly anything of the world,
but I do know the woman who has reared and educated me. My grandmother
would never forgive me if I married a poor man. I should be an outcast.'
'We would be outcasts together--happy outcasts. Besides, we should not
always be poor. I tell you I am predestined to conquer fate.'
'But we should have to begin from the beginning.'
'Yes, we should have to begin from the beginning, as Adam and Eve did
when they left Paradise.'
'We are not told in the Bible that they had any happiness after that. It
seems to have been all trouble and weariness, and toil and death, after
the angel with the flaming sword drove them out of Eden.'
'They were together, and they must have been happy. Oh, Lesbia, if you
do not feel that you can face poverty and the world's contempt by my
side, and for my sake, you do not love me. Love never calculates so
nicely; love never fears the future; and yet you do love me, Lesbia,' he
said, trying to fold her in his arms; but again she drew herself away
from him--this time with a look almost of horror--and stood facing him,
clinging to one of the pine trunks, like a scared wood-nymph.
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