Then he had cried out with the anguish of one who begins to see a great loss facing him where he expected a great joy.
"Rachel! Do you not love me?
Is not my love for you as sacred as anything in all of life itself ?" She had walked silent for a few steps after that.

They passed a street lamp.

Her face was pale and beautiful.

He had made a movement to clutch her arm and she had moved a little farther from him.
"No," she had replied.

"There was a time I--cannot answer for that you--should not have spoken to me--now." He had seen in these words his answer.