With an inward groan he gave way, and let his heart yield towards her. A
sudden gentle smile came on his face. And her eyes, which never left his
face, slowly, slowly filled with tears. He watched the strange water rise
in her eyes, like some slow fountain coming up. And his heart seemed to
burn and melt away in his breast.
He could not bear to look at her any more. He dropped on his knees and
caught her head with his arms and pressed her face against his throat.
She was very still. His heart, which seemed to have broken, was burning
with a kind of agony in his breast. And he felt her slow, hot tears
wetting his throat. But he could not move.
He felt the hot tears wet his neck and the hollows of his neck, and he
remained motionless, suspended through one of man's eternities. Only now
it had become indispensable to him to have her face pressed close to him;
he could never let her go again. He could never let her head go away from
the close clutch of his arm. He wanted to remain like that for ever, with
his heart hurting him in a pain that was also life to him. Without
knowing, he was looking down on her damp, soft brown hair.
Then, as it were suddenly, he smelt the horrid stagnant smell of that
water. And at the same moment she drew away from him and looked at him.
Her eyes were wistful and unfathomable. He was afraid of them, and he
fell to kissing her, not knowing what he was doing.
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