"Do you mean it, Olof?" She nestled closer to him as she spoke.

"And do you know what I was thinking as I walked behind the plough?
I wanted you to be a tiny flower, to put in my breast, so I could
see you all the time. Or a sweet apple I could keep in my pocket and
fondle secretly--talk to you and play with you and no one ever to
know."

"How prettily you talk, Olof!"

"If anyone had told me, I would never have believed love was like
this. It's all so strange. Do you know, I want to...."

"Yes? Tell me!"

"Crush you to death--like this!"

"Oh, if I could die like that--now, now...."

"No, no--but to crush you slowly, in a long, long kiss."

The twilight quivered in the room. And all was still.

A sound, a creaking noise as of a door in the next room opening.

Two heads were raised from the pillow, two hearts stopped beating.

Again--and more distinctly now--as if someone moved.