“Do? Why you must _make_ me, Thyrsis!” And as she said this she hid her face upon his shoulder and sobbed. “You are a man, Thyrsis, you are a man, and I am only a girl! Do what you want to! Don’t pay any attention to me!” And those words to Thyrsis were like the crashing of a peal of thunder. He clutched her to him, with a force that crushed her, that made her cry out. The soul of the cave-man awoke in him--he lifted his mate in his arms and bore her away to a secret place. “Put down the light,” she whispered, and he did this. And then again he began to unfasten her dress. She submitted at first, she let him have his way. But later, when his hands touched the soft garment on her bosom, he felt a sharp tremor pass through her. “Thyrsis!” she whispered. “What is it?” he asked. “Wait dear, wait!” “Why wait?” he cried. “Just a moment--please, dear!” But he answered her--“No! Not a moment! No!” She clung to him, trembling, pleading. “Please, dearest, please! I’m afraid, Thyrsis.” But nothing could stop him now. She was his--his to do what he pleased with! And he would bend her to his will! The voice of his manhood shouted aloud to him now, and it was like the clashing of wild cymbals in his soul. He went on with what he was doing. She shrunk away from him, but he followed her, he held her fast. Then she began to sob--“Oh Thyrsis, wait--spare me! I can’t bear it! No, Thyrsis--no!” But he answered her, “Be still! I love you! You are mine.” And for every sob and every shudder and every moan of fear he had but one response--“I love you! You are mine!” He knew that he loved her now--and he knew what his love meant. Before this they had been strangers; but now he would penetrate to the secret places, to the holy of holies of her being. Never in all his life had Thyrsis known woman. To him woman had been the supreme mystery of life, a creature of awe and sacredness--not to be handled, scarcely even to be thought about. Now the awful ban was lifted, the barriers were down; what had been hidden was revealed, what had been forbidden was permitted. So all the chained desire of a lifetime drove him on; it was almost more than he could bear. The touch of her warm breasts, the faint perfume of her clothing, the pressure of her soft, white limbs--these things set every nerve of him a-tremble, they turned a madness loose in him. A blinding whirl of emotion seized him, he was like a leaf swept away in a gale; his words came now in wild sobs, “I love you! I love you!” So with quivering fingers he stripped her before him; and she crouched there, cowering and weeping. He took her in his arms; and that clasp there was no misunderstanding, for all the mastery of his will was in it. Nor did she try to resist him--she lay still, but shaking like a leaf, and choking with sobs. And so it was that he wreaked his will upon her.