"Ah, thank you!" said I, and began to fill my pipe, while she
watched me with her chin propped in her hands.
"Peter!"
"Yes, Charmian?"
"I wonder why so grave a person as Mr. Peter Vibart should seek
to marry so impossible a creature as--the Humble Person?"
"I think," I answered, "I think, if there is any special reason,
it is because of--your mouth."
"My mouth?"
"Or your eyes--or the way you have with your lashes."
Charmian laughed, and forthwith drooped them at me, and laughed
again, and shook her head.
"But surely, Peter, surely there are thousands, millions of women
with mouths and eyes like--the Humble Person's?"
"It is possible," said I, "but none who have the same way with
their lashes."
"What do you mean?"
"I can't tell; I don't know."
"Don't you, Peter?"
"No--it is just a way."
"And so it is that you want to marry this very Humble Person?"
"I think I have wanted to from the very first, but did not know
it--being a blind fool!"
"And--did it need a night walk in a thunderstorm to teach you?"
"No--that is, yes--perhaps it did."
"And--are you quite, quite sure?"
"Quite--quite sure!" said I, and, as I spoke, I laid my pipe upon
the table and rose; and, because my hands were trembling, I
clenched my fists. But, as I approached her, she started up and
put out a hand to hold me off, and then I saw that her hands were
trembling also. And standing thus, she spoke, very softly: "Peter."
"Yes, Charmian?"
"Do you remember describing to me the--the perfect woman who
should be your--wife?"
"Yes."
"How that you must be able to respect her for her intellect?"
"Yes."
"Honor her for her virtue?"
"Yes, Charmian."
"And worship her--for her--spotless purity?"
"I dreamed a paragon--perfect and impossible; I was a fool!" said I.
"Impossible! Oh, Peter! what--what do you mean?"
"She was only an impalpable shade quite impossible of
realization--a bloodless thing, as you said, and quite unnatural
--a sickly figment of the imagination. I was a fool!"
"And you are--too wise now, to expect--such virtues--in any
woman?"
"Yes," said I; "no--oh, Charmian! I only know that you have
taken this phantom's place--that you fill all my thoughts
--sleeping, and waking--"