y tell him. He looks at me with
haughty contempt. He gives a sign. His servants seize her and drag her
screaming away. I try to follow, to kill him. I, too, am seized,
overpowered. They bind me, put out my eyes. The Roman sees them do it.
He laughs as the red-hot iron kisses my eye-balls. He mocks me, telling
me what a dainty feast awaits him in my bride. Again I see Locasto.

* * * * *

Then came another phase of my delirium, in which I struggled to get to
her. She was waiting for me, wanting me, breaking her heart at my delay.
O, Berna, my soul, my life, since the beginning of things we were fated.
'Tis no flesh love, but something deeper, something that has its source
at the very core of being. It is not for your sweet face, your gentle
spirit, my own, that you are dearer to me than all else: it is
because--you are you. If all the world were to turn against you, flout
you, stone you, then would I rush to your side, shield you, die with
you. If you were attainted with leprosy, I would enter the lazar-house
for your sake.

"O Berna, I must see you, I must, I must. Let me go to her ... now ...
dear! She's calling me. She's in trouble. Oh, for the love of God, let
me go ... let me go, I say.... Curse you, I will. She's in trouble. You
can't hold me. I'm stronger than you all when she calls.... Let me ...
let me.... Oh, oh, oh ... you're hurting me so. I'm weak, yes, weak as
a baby.... Berna, my child, my poor little girl, I can do nothing.
There's a mountain weighing me down. There's a slab of gold on my chest.
They're burning me up. My veins are on fire. I can't come.... I can't,
dear.... I'm tired...."

Then the fever, the ravings, the wild threshing of my pillow, all passed
away, and I was left limp, weak, helpless, resigned to my fate.

I was on the sunny slope of convalescence. The Prodigal had remained
with me as long as I was in danger, but now that I had turned the
corner, he had gone back to the creeks, so that I was left with only my
thoughts for company. As I turned and twisted on my narrow cot it seemed
as if the time would never pass. All I wanted was to get better fast,
and to get out again. Then, I thought, I would marry Berna and go
"outside." I was sick of the country, of everything.

I was lying thinking over these things, when I became aware that the man
in the cot to the right was trying to attract my attention. He had been
brought in that very morning, said to hav