nd which awaited her as
Arthur's wife and this fair, full existence. She shuddered to think of
the dull house in Harley Street and the insignificance of its humdrum
duties. But it was possible for her also to enjoy the wonder of the
world. Her soul yearned for a beauty that the commonalty of men did not
know. And what devil suggested, a warp as it were in the woof of Oliver's
speech, that her exquisite loveliness gave her the right to devote
herself to the great art of living? She felt a sudden desire for
perilous adventures. As though fire passed through her, she sprang to
her feet and stood with panting bosom, her flashing eyes bright with the
multi-coloured pictures that his magic presented.

Oliver Haddo stood too, and they faced one another. Then, on a sudden,
she knew what the passion was that consumed her. With a quick movement,
his eyes more than ever strangely staring, he took her in his arms, and
he kissed her lips. She surrendered herself to him voluptuously. Her
whole body burned with the ecstasy of his embrace.

'I think I love you,' she said, hoarsely.

She looked at him. She did not feel ashamed.

'Now you must go,' he said.

He opened the door, and, without another word, she went. She walked
through the streets as if nothing at all had happened. She felt neither
remorse nor revulsion.

Then Margaret felt every day that uncontrollable desire to go to him;
and, though she tried to persuade herself not to yield, she knew that her
effort was only a pretence: she did not want anything to prevent her.
When it seemed that some accident would do so, she could scarcely control
her irritation. There was always that violent hunger of the soul which
called her to him, and the only happy hours she had were those spent in
his company. Day after day she felt that complete ecstasy when he took
her in his huge arms, and kissed her with his heavy, sensual lips. But
the ecstasy was extraordinarily mingled with loathing, and her physical
attraction was allied with physical abhorrence.

Yet when he looked at her with those pale blue eyes, and threw into
his voice those troubling accents, she forgot everything. He spoke
of unhallowed things. Sometimes, as it were, he lifted a corner of the
veil, and she caught a glimpse of terrible secrets. She understood how
men had bartered their souls for infinite knowledge. She seemed to
stand upon a pinnacle of the temple, and spiritual kingdoms of darkness,
principalities of the