Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - I
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
an inconceivable grace” — was it her fault that he looked upon
it in that way?
He could not have made her his mistress unless she had
wanted it herself or made him feel that she wanted it. She
understood that he was longing for her; it worried her every
time they were together to know herself desired and to see his
efforts to conceal it — he was too proud to let her see it, too
proud to beg where he had once offered to give — and too proud
to risk refusal. Knowing that she did not want to reject his
love and to lose the only being who loved her, what else could
she do, if she wished to be honest, but offer him what she had
to give when she accepted from him something she could not do
without?
But she had been faced with the necessity of saying words
stronger and more passionate than her feelings, and he had
believed them. And it happened again and again. When she
came to him depressed, worried, tired of thinking what the
end of it all would be, and saw that he understood, she used
again the tender words, feigning more feeling than she had,
and he was deceived at once.
He knew no other love than the love which was happiness
in itself. Unhappiness in love came from outside, from some
relentless fate, or from stern justice as a vengeance for old
wrongs. She knew what his fear was — he dreaded that her
love would die one day when she saw that he was too old to be
her lover, but he never had a suspicion that her love was born
a weakling and had in it the germ that would lead to death.
It was no good trying to explain this to Gert; he would not
understand. She could not tell him that she had sought shelter
in his arms because he was the only one who had offered to
shelter her when she was weary to death. When he offered her
love and warmth she had not the strength to reject, although she
knew she ought not to accept it — she was not worthy of it.
No, he was not old. It was the passion of a youth of twenty,
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
