"If you will go ahead while there is light, I will follow--" The solution came suddenly. "How stupid! There is nothing to prevent us carrying the candles downstairs with us, is there? Will you take one, please?" She returned to the table and took up one of the candlesticks. "I've been terribly worried about you, Alix," he said, without moving. "How wonderful it is to see you again,--to see what is really you and not the girl I've seen in dreams for the past few endless nights. You in the flesh, you with your beautiful eyes, you whose lips--oh, God, I--I have been nearly mad, Alix. A thousand times I have felt you in my arms,--you've never been out of them in my thoughts. I--" "Please--please!" she cried, shrinking back and putting her hands to her temples. Still he did not move. There was a gentleness in his voice, a softness that disarmed her. It was not the voice of a conqueror, rather it was that of a suppliant. "I am not worthy to touch the hem of your garment," he went on, an expression of pain leaping swiftly to his eyes. "I am most unworthy. My life has not been perfect. I have done many things that I am ashamed of, things I would give my soul to recall. But my love for you, Alix Crown, is perfect. All the good that God ever put into me is in this feeling I have for you. You are the very soul of me. If you tell me to go away, I will go. That is how I love you. You DO believe I love you with all my heart and soul, don't you, Alix? You DO believe that I would die for you?" Now she was looking into his eyes across the candle flames. David's features had vanished. She saw nothing save the white, drawn face of the man whose voice, sweet with passion, fell upon her ears like the murmur of far-off music. She felt the warm thrill of blood rushing back into her icy veins, surging up to her throat, to her trembling lips, to her eyes. "I--I don't know what to think--I don't know what to believe," she heard herself saying. He came a step or two nearer. Her eyes never left his. She tried to look away. "I want you to me mine forever, Alix. I want you to be my wife. I want you to be with me to the end of my life. I cannot live without you. Do not send me away now. It is too late." Her knees gave way. She sank slowly to the bench,--and still she looked into his gleaming eyes. He came to her. She was in his arms. His face was close to hers, his breath was on her cheek.... "No! No!" she almost shrieked, and wrenched herself free. "Not now! Not here! Give me time--give me time to think!" She had sprung to her feet and was glaring at him with the eyes of an animal at bay. He fell back in astonishment. "You--you had no right to follow me here," she was crying. "You had no right! This place is sacred. It is sanctuary." Her voice broke. "My mother was born in this room. She died in this room. And I was born here. Go! Please go!"