AUDR. He went away from me. I never saw him again--alive. (_Passionately._) And there's an end of him! MICH. I won't ask you what that secret is. I would wish you to keep it sacred. But your secret about myself? Surely I may ask that? AUDR. I have sold you to the devil. MICH. What? AUDR. I have sold myself, too. MICH. Still jesting? AUDR. No, I did it in real, deep earnest. MICH. I don't understand you. AUDR. Six months ago I was tired, gnawn to the very heart with ennui, and one hot restless night I happened to take up your book, "The Hidden Life." It came to me--oh, like a breath of the purest, freshest air in a fevered room. I thought I should like to know you. I got up early, took the first morning train down here, looked about the place, saw the Island House was to let, and rented it for three years. MICH. Well? AUDR. I got Mr. Docwray to give me an introduction to you. You annoyed me, you were so cold and priestlike. Each time I saw you, you piqued and angered me more and more. I longed to get some power over you. At last one day after you had been so frozen and distant a little black imp jumped into my brain and whispered to me. I said to the devil, "Give this sculptured saint to me, and I'll give both our souls to you." MICH. But you didn't mean it? AUDR. Yes. I said it with all my heart, and I bit my arm--look--(_Showing her arm._) I made the teeth meet. There's the mark. If there is a devil, he heard me. MICH. And you think he has given me to you? AUDR. The next time I saw you, you let me kiss your mother's portrait. MICH. Ah! AUDR. But you don't really believe there is a devil? Why don't you speak? Why don't you laugh at me and tell me it's all nonsense? I haven't really given the devil power over your soul? MICH. No devil has any power over any soul of man until the man himself first gives him entrance and consent. AUDR. And you haven't! Say you don't care for me. MICH. How can I say that? AUDR. You must! I'm not strong enough to leave you of my own free will. I shall hang about you, worry you, tease you, tempt you, and at last, destroy you. Don't let me do it! Beat me away from you, insult me, do something to make me hate you! Make me leave you! MICH. When I love you with all my being? AUDR. (_shows great delight_). And you dare go on? It's an awful delight to think that a man would dare to risk hell for one! There aren't many men who would dare lose this world for the woman they love--how many men are there that would dare to lose the other? MICH. We must lose this world, for I am vowed away from all earthly things. But why should we lose the other? Why should we not make our love the lever to raise our souls? You do love me?