Her eyes, wide and large
and wondering, watched him, and asked him the ultimate question.
'I came--because I must,' he said. 'Why do you ask?'
She looked at him in doubt and wonder.
'I must ask,' she said.
He shook his head slightly.
'There is no answer,' he replied, with strange vacancy.
There was about him a curious, and almost godlike air of simplicity and
native directness. He reminded her of an apparition, the young Hermes.
'But why did you come to me?' she persisted.
'Because--it has to be so. If there weren't you in the world, then I
shouldn't be in the world, either.'
She stood looking at him, with large, wide, wondering, stricken eyes.
His eyes were looking steadily into hers all the time, and he seemed
fixed in an odd supernatural steadfastness. She sighed. She was lost
now. She had no choice.
'Won't you take off your boots,' she said. 'They must be wet.'
He dropped his cap on a chair, unbuttoned his overcoat, lifting up his
chin to unfasten the throat buttons.
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