Part 41 (1/2)
”Agnes! When I command you to do so, you will open your eyes, and awaken enough so that you may speak to me! You will see me! You will hear my voice! But you will neither see nor hear any other person!
Awaken!”
Agnes slowly opened her eyes, and gazed steadily towards the Doctor.
Otherwise, she did not move.
”You see and hear me?” asked the Doctor.
”Yes!”
”Do you see any other person?”
”No!”
”Agnes, I wish to question you upon a very important subject. Will you reply truthfully?”
”I will reply. Of course it will be truthfully, because I do not know falsehood.”
”Do you love any one, so that you would marry him?”
”I do not know what love is. I do not know what marriage means for me.”
The Judge breathed a sigh of relief as he heard these words. He thought that his daughter was safe, but even yet he did not comprehend the power of the man beside him.
”I will now tell you what it is to love. Listen!”
”I will listen!”
”In heaven's name, Medjora,” cried the Judge, ”go no further!” He grasped the Doctor's arm as he made the appeal, but he might as well have addressed a thing of stone. He was unheeded. The Doctor proceeded:
”Somewhere in a secret corner of thy soul, as yet unreached, there is a spot more sensitive than all the rest. A single vibration penetrating there, if harmonious and according with thine own desires, would awaken a joyousness to which all other joys compare as the odor of the rankest weeds to the fragrance of the sweetest rose. A thousand, thousand dreams of happiness are insignificant to the thrill which courses through the veins when that centre of thy soul is touched by love. Forever and forever after, wilt thou be a different being; thine old self cast behind and buried in the oblivion of the past, whilst thy new existence will remain incomplete, until coupled with that other dear one, whose glancing eye hath pierced and found the deepest corner of thy heart. But this is not all. If the first recognition of the existence of thy love be delirious ecstacy, by what name shall I nominate that joy which issues from the consummation of thy heart's desire, when thy love is perfected by a union with one that loves thee better than he loves himself? This is love! Wouldst thou not taste it?”
The girl's lips quivered, and she spoke as one enraptured.
”I would! I would! O give me love! Love! Sweet, sweet love!”
”Thy wish shall be gratified. Look towards that curtain!”
She raised herself into a sitting position, and did as directed.
”Now sleep until I bid thee awaken into love! Sleep!”
The eyelids closed, and the bosom heaved gently as the girl slumbered.
The Doctor addressed Leon.
”Leon! Awaken! I have promised you that you shall meet your future love. She will be life and love to you forever! Awaken!”
Leon stirred, opened his eyes, and looked at the Doctor.
”You cannot see anyone unless I tell you! Look towards that curtain!”