hat a shoot of mortal pain was that! what a sickening
sting! It went right through my heart! Again! That was sharpness
itself!--and so sickening! I could not move my hand to lay it on my
heart; something kept it down!

The pain was dying away, but my whole body seemed paralysed. Some evil
thing was upon me!--something hateful! I would have struggled, but could
not reach a struggle. My will agonised, but in vain, to assert itself.
I desisted, and lay passive. Then I became aware of a soft hand on my
face, pressing my head into the pillow, and of a heavy weight lying
across me.

I began to breathe more freely; the weight was gone from my chest; I
opened my eyes.

The princess was standing above me on the bed, looking out into the
room, with the air of one who dreamed. Her great eyes were clear and
calm. Her mouth wore a look of satisfied passion; she wiped from it a
streak of red.

She caught my gaze, bent down, and struck me on the eyes with the
handkerchief in her hand: it was like drawing the edge of a knife across
them, and for a moment or two I was blind.

I heard a dull heavy sound, as of a large soft-footed animal alighting
from a little jump. I opened my eyes, and saw the great swing of a long
tail as it disappeared through the half-open doorway. I sprang after it.

The creature had vanished quite. I shot down the stair, and into the
hall of alabaster. The moon was high, and the place like the inside of
a faint, sun-blanched moon. The princess was not there. I must find her:
in her presence I might protect myself; out of it I could not! I was
a tame animal for her to feed upon; a human fountain for a thirst
demoniac! She showed me favour the more easily to use me! My waking eyes
did not fear her, but they would close, and she would come! Not seeing
her, I felt her everywhere, for she might be anywhere--might even now
be waiting me in some secret cavern of sleep! Only with my eyes upon her
could I feel safe from her!

Outside the alabaster hall it was pitch-dark, and I had to grope my way
along with hands and feet. At last I felt a curtain, put it aside, and
entered the black hall. There I found a great silent assembly. How it
was visible I neither saw nor could imagine, for the walls, the floor,
the roof, were shrouded in what seemed an infinite blackness, blacker
than the blackest of moonless, starless nights; yet my eyes could
separate, although vaguely, not a few of the individuals in the mass
interpen