ulness of comprehension, that of all loves the most
determined is the love of a mother for her only son. A mother may,
perhaps, have a son and not love him; but if once she loves him she
holds within her a thing that will not die while she lives.

And if the thing that was without lust stood up in battle against the
thing that was full of lust--what then?

The black and still night seemed a battlefield.

Softly she stepped upon the highest terrace and stood for a moment under
the great plane tree, where was the wooden seat on which she had waited
for Dion to weep away the past and the good woman who had ruined his
life. To-night she was invaded by an odd uncertainty. If she went to the
pavilion and Dion were not there? If he did not come? Would some part
of her, perhaps, be glad, the part that in a mysterious way was one with
Jimmy? She stared into the darkness, looking towards the pavilion. Dion
Leith had once said she looked punished. Perhaps when he had said that
he had shown that he had intuition.

Was he there? It was past eleven now. She had assumed that he would
come, and she was inclined to believe that he had come. If so she need
not see him even now. There was still time for her to go back to the
villa, to shut herself in, to go to bed, as Jimmy had gone to bed. But
if she did that she would not sleep. All night long she would lie wide
awake, tossing from side to side, the helpless prey of her past life.

She frowned and slipped through the darkness, almost like a fluid, to
the pavilion.

CHAPTER VIII

She came so silently that Dion heard nothing till against the background
of the night he saw a shadow, her thin body, a faint whiteness, her
face, motionless at the opening of the pavilion; from this shadow and
this whiteness came a voice which said:

"Did you come under the influence of _Defetgamm_?"

"It's impossible that you see me!" he said.

"I see you plainly with some part of me, not my eyes."

He got up from the divan where he had been sitting in the dark and went
to the opening of the pavilion.

"Did you come under the influence of _Defetgamm_?" she repeated.

"You know I didn't."

He paused, then added:

"I nearly didn't come to-night."

"And I nearly went down, after I had come up here, without seeing you.
And yet--we are together again."

"Why do you want to see me here? We agreed--"

"Yes, we agreed; but after to-day in the forest that agreement had to be
broken. When you