And though your love is far less, far cooler than mine, yet you will not defraud me of the best happiness of my life ?" "How could I ?" he asked, as if he felt wounded by such distrust.

"What detains me must be something absolutely unavoidable." Ledscha's eyebrows contracted sharply, and in a choked voice she exclaimed: "Nothing must detain you--nothing, whatever it may be! Though death should threaten, you will be with me just at midnight." "I will, if it is possible," he protested, painfully touched by the vehemence of her urging.

"What can be more welcome to me also than to spend happy hours with you in the silence of a moonlight night?
Besides, my stay in Tennis will not be long." "You are going ?" she asked in a hollow tone.
"In three or four days," he answered carelessly; "then Myrtilus and I will be expected in Alexandria.

But gently--gently--how pale you are, girl! Yes, the parting! But in six weeks at latest I shall be here again; then real life will first begin, and Eros will make the roses bloom for us." Ledscha nodded silently, and gazing into his face with a searching look asked, "And how long will this season of blossoming last ?" "Several months, girl; three, if not six." "And then ?" "Who looks so far into the future ?" She lowered her glance, and, as if yielding to the inevitable, answered: "What a fool I was! Who knows what the morrow may bring?
Are we even sure whether, six months hence, we shall not hate, instead of loving, each other ?" She passed her hand across her brow as she spoke, exclaiming: "You said just now that only the present belonged to man.

Then let us enjoy it as though every moment might be the last.