The Ghost Who Fell in Love

The Earl put out his arms towards her. But Demelza did not move and he stopped before he touched her.

"May I kiss you?" he whispered.

"I think ... if you kissed me it would be more wonderful than anything else in the world ... but it would be . . . wrong."

"Wrong?" the Earl asked.

"It would be wrong . . . because you belong to someone else."

The Earl was very still.

"You took a sacred vow," she said in a low voice.

"A vow no human being would keep in the circumstances!"

Demelza did not speak.

"How can you be so cruel?" he cried. "How can you deny me what you know in your heart is rightfully mine!"

Again she did not speak.

The Earl looked into her dark, troubled eyes. He lingered on the softness of her parted lips.

"You love me!" he cried hoarsely. "You love me ... and you belong to me!"