In the end she did so.
For a space not reckoned by time she surrendered herself to a mastery
that would not be denied. She met the kindling flame of his worship, and
was strangely awed and humbled thereby. She knew now beyond all question
that this man was not as most men. He came to her with the first,
untainted offering of his love. No other woman had been before her in
that inner sanctuary which he now flung wide for her to enter. There was
a purity, a primitive simplicity, about his passion which made her
realize that very clearly. He was no boy. He had lived a life of hard
self-discipline and had put his youth behind him long since. But he
brought all the intensity of a boy's adoration to back his manhood's
strength of purpose, and before it she was impotent and half-afraid. The
men of her world had all been of a totally different mould. She was
accustomed to cynicism and the half-mocking homage of jaded experience.
But this was new, this was wonderful--a force that burned and dazzled
her, yet which attracted her irresistibly none the less, thrilling her
with a rapture that had never before entered her life. Whatever the risk,
whatever the penalty, she was bound to go forward now.
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