CHAPTER XXXII 469 marry her."
" DOES she like me?" he asked.
" Certainly; better than she likes any one else. She talks of you continually: there is no subject she enjoys so much or touches upon so often."
" It is very pleasant to hear this," he said-- " very: go on for another quarter of an hour." And he actually took out his watch and laid it upon the table to measure the time.
" But where is the use of going on," I asked, " when you are probably preparing some iron blow of contradiction, or forging a fresh chain to fetter your heart?"
" Don ' t imagine such hard things. Fancy me yielding and melting, as I am doing: human love rising like a freshly opened fountain in my mind and overflowing with sweet inundation all the field I have so carefully and with such labour prepared-- so assiduously sown with the seeds of good intentions, of self-denying plans. And now it is deluged with a nectarous flood-- the young germs swamped-- delicious poison cankering them: now I see myself stretched on an ottoman in the drawing-room at Vale Hall at my bride Rosamond Oliver ' s feet: she is talking to me with her sweet voice-- gazing down on me with those eyes your skilful hand has copied so well-- smiling at me with these coral lips. She is mine-- I am hers-- this present life and passing world suffice to me. Hush! say nothing-- my heart is full of delight-- my senses are entranced-- let the time I marked pass in peace."
I humoured him: the watch ticked on: he breathed fast and low: I stood silent. Amidst this hush the quartet sped; he replaced the watch, laid the picture down, rose, and stood on the hearth.
" Now," said he, " that little space was given to delirium and delusion. I rested my temples on the breast of temptation, and put my neck voluntarily under her yoke of flowers. I tasted her cup. The pillow was burning: there