Suppose, then, that she heard you and answered
you and came to you and claimed your love, what then?"
"Why, then, friend Kari," I raved on, "then I should welcome her, for
love goes a begging, ready as ripe fruit to be plucked by the first hand
if it be fair enough, ready to melt beneath the first lips if they be
warm enough. 'Tis said that it is the man who loves and the woman who
accepts the love. But that is not true. It is the man, Kari, who waits
to be loved and pays back just as much as is given to him, and no more,
like an honest merchant; for if he does otherwise, then he suffers for
it, as I have learned. Therefore, come, Quilla, and love as a Celestial
can and I swear that step by step I'll keep pace with you in flesh
and spirit through Heaven, or through Hell, since love I must have, or
death."
"I pray you, talk not so," said Kari again, in a frightened voice,
"since those words of yours come from the heart and will be heard. The
goddess is a woman, too, and what woman will turn from such a bait?"
"Let her take it, then. Why not?"
"Because, O friend, because _Quilla_ is wed to _Yuti_; the Moon is the
Sun's wife, and if the Sun grows jealous what will happen to the man who
has robbed the greatest of the world's gods?"
"I do not know and I do not care.
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