nued the quiet voice relentlessly, "the sacrifice has
been averted, but _now_ the hour has come. Thou art here alone, none
knowing, and I--I _alone_ can save thee. And will not Kali, our
mother, raise her hands in blessing upon us united, even as we were
united when babes, and being appeased, lift the curse from off the
land. She is soft and gentle, treading lightly upon life's stony
paths, Uma so sweet, Parvati, daughter of the eternal snows. Oh!
woman, say that thou wilt be my wife, for behold, are we not marked
with the same mark which----"

"Mark? _What_ mark?" Leonie questioned abruptly, looking back over her
shoulder, her mouth perilously near to his as he bent his head slightly
towards her; and there fell a little silence in which the thudding of
his heart could be felt against the silk thread of her jersey.

"Between thy breasts, thou white dove, hast thou no mark?"

Leonie tried to speak, and failing, nodded her russet head.

"Even so, it is the mark of Kali which the priest cut upon thee and me,
uniting us all those moons ago in the Mother."

She turned completely round and faced the man with a little look of
wonder in her eyes.

"I have so often wondered about the--the little mark," she said. "But
you see--how could I marry you--I could not, do not--love you!"

"Love," he said quietly. "_Love_! Thou wilt love me, aye! thou wilt
love me in thy waking hours, even as thou wouldst have loved me in thy
sleep if--if the gods had not intervened."

"You--have--been with me--in--my--sleep?" she whispered.

"When thou didst walk in thy sleep!"

CHAPTER XLVII

"For jealousy is the rage of a man;
therefore he will not spare in the day
of vengeance."--_The Bible_.

Suddenly she was struck with the full horror of those lost nights in
which the man beside her had been her companion. She stretched out her
hands and turned them over this way and that, scrutinising them with
horrified eyes. She touched her mouth with her finger-tips and drew
them with a shudder down her neck, and her breast, and her waist, as
she looked upon the beauty of the man before her with his passionate
mouth and gleaming eyes.

"You--you have been with me when I have walked, unconscious in my
sleep; you have----"

He interrupted her hastily, divining her thoughts.

"Yea!" he said, "I have been with thee when, under the influence of
_my_ god, thou hast walked in thy sleep. I have watched over thee and
helped thy cu