Behold!" and she
took his hand and placed it upon her shapely head, and then bent herself
slowly down till one knee for an instant touched the ground--"Behold! in
token of submission do I bow me to my lord! Behold!" and she kissed him
on the lips, "in token of my wifely love do I kiss my lord. Behold!"
and she laid her hand upon his heart, "by the sin I sinned, by my lonely
centuries of waiting wherewith it was wiped out, by the great love
wherewith I love, and by the Spirit--the Eternal Thing that doth beget
all life, from whom it ebbs, to whom it doth return again--I swear:--
"I swear, even in this most holy hour of completed Womanhood, that I
will abandon Evil and cherish Good. I swear that I will be ever guided
by thy voice in the straightest path of Duty. I swear that I will eschew
Ambition, and through all my length of endless days set Wisdom over me
as a guiding star to lead me unto Truth and a knowledge of the Right.
I swear also that I will honour and will cherish thee, Kallikrates, who
hast been swept by the wave of time back into my arms, ay, till the very
end, come it soon or late.
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