mercy! I sought a lover, I find a master.
I sought but a live youth, was blind to what his survival would betoken.
Oh master, you think me light and wicked. You stare coldly down at me
through your spectacles, whose glint I faintly discern now that the moon
peeps forth. You would be readier to forgive me the havoc I have wrought
if you could for the life of you understand what charm your friends
found in me. You marvel, as at the skull of Helen of Troy. No, you don't
think me hideous: you simply think me plain. There was a time when I
thought YOU plain--you whose face, now that the moon shines full on it,
is seen to be of a beauty that is flawless without being insipid. Oh
that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek! You
shudder at the notion of such contact. My voice grates on you. You try
to silence me with frantic though exquisite gestures, and with noises
inarticulate but divine. I bow to your will, master. Chasten me with
your tongue."

"I am not what you think me," gibbered Noaks. "I was not afraid to die
for you. I love you. I was on my way to the river this afternoon, but
I--I tripped and sprained my ankle, and--and jarred my spine. They
carried me back here. I am still very weak. I can't put my foot to the
ground. As soon as I can--"

Just then Zuleika heard a little sharp sound which, for the fraction of
an instant, before she knew it to be a clink of metal on the pavement,
she thought was the breaking of the heart within her. Looking quickly
down, she heard a shrill girlish laugh aloft. Looking quickly up,
she descried at the unlit window above her lover's a face which she
remembered as that of the land-lady's daughter.

"Find it, Miss Dobson," laughed the girl. "Crawl for it. It can't have
rolled far, and it's the only engagement-ring you'll get from HIM," she
said, pointing to the livid face twisted painfully up at her from the
lower window. "Grovel for it, Miss Dobson. Ask him to step down and help
you. Oh, he can! That was all lies about his spine and ankle. Afraid,
that's what he was--I see it all now--afraid of the water. I wish you'd
found him as I did--skulking behind the curtain. Oh, you're welcome to
him."

"Don't listen," Noaks cried down. "Don't listen to that person. I admit
I have trifled with her affections. This is her revenge--these wicked
untruths--these--these--"

Zuleika silenced him with a gesture. "Your tone to me," she said up to
Katie, "is not without offenc