l better
now.'

He made his way to her with some difficulty, being unable to distinguish
things very clearly in the half light.

She smiled wanly at him from among the pillows out of the gloom. Across
her forehead and round her face, like a nun's wimple, lay a band of
white linen which was scarcely whiter than the cheeks it encircled, such
was her extreme pallor. The outer angles of her eyelids were contracted
by the pain of her inflamed nerves, the lower lids quivering
spasmodically from time to time, and the eyes were dewy and infinitely
melting as if veiled by a mist of unshed tears under the trembling
lashes.

A flood of pity and tenderness swept over the young man's heart when he
came close to her and could see her clearly. Very slowly she drew one
hand from under the coverlet and held it out to him. He bent over it
till he half knelt on the edge of the couch and rained kisses thick and
fast upon that burning, fevered hand, and the white wrist with its
hurrying pulse.

'Elena--Elena--my love!'

Elena had closed her eyes, as if to resign herself more wholly to the
ecstasy that penetrated to the most hidden fibre of her being. Then she
turned her hand over that she might feel those kisses on her palm, on
each finger, all round her wrist, on every vein, in every pore.

'Enough!' she murmured at last, opening her eyes again, and passed her
languid hand softly over Andrea's hair.

Her caress, though light, was so ineffably tender, that to the lover's
soul it had the effect of a rose leaf falling into a full cup of water.
His passion brimmed over. His lips trembled under a confused torrent of
words which rose to them but which he could not express. He had the
violent and divine sensation as of a new life spreading in widening
circles round him beyond all physical perception.

'What bliss!' said Elena, repeating her fond gesture, and a tremor ran
through her whole person, visible through the coverlet.

But when Andrea made as if to take her hand again--'No,' she entreated,
'do not move--stay as you are, I like to have you so.'

She gently pressed his head down till his cheek lay against her knee.
She gazed at him a little, still with that caressing touch upon his
head, and then in a voice that seemed to faint with ecstasy she
murmured, lingering over the syllables--

'How I love you!'

There was an ineffable seduction in the way she pronounced the words--so
liquid, so enthralling on a woman's lips.

'Aga