Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/248

 “Exactly, but what can be done? Merzilla must either have a body or remain inside of me.”

“Her name is Merzilla?”

“Yes. Do you not think it pretty? It means”

“No matter! No matter! Let me think!”

“There's one thing I may as well tell you, George; you will believe it or not, as you like. I was informed before I left Mars that if we could catch upon a woman in the very  act of dying, Merzilla could, under certain conditions, seize  her body, enter into it and reanimate it. Of course I don’t understand how, but on Mars”

“Of course you will never mention it again if you want to avoid the asylum you feared just now.”

“Oh I suppose it’s no use. Of course we can find no such chance, though it’s almost enough to tempt a fellow  into murder. Then there is the question of eating. They don’t eat such food as we do on Mars. I know just how to provide for Merzilla if I could only get about, and in time  she would learn to eat our dishes, but so long as I can’t control my legs, what am I to do?”

“You are to stop talking now,” I whispered hurriedly, “for here comes the Doctor, and—bless me! It is Walla back again! Has she been listening! Has the poor girl heard?”

Out of the darkness behind us Walla was seen gliding. There was a peculiar calmness about her face; she tottered toward us and sank down upon the sand at Maurice’s  feet.

“I will help you, my friend, my love!” she murmured. “If I cannot have your heart, at least I can relieve your suffering. Take my life! Take it! Let the woman who has your love have my body also. Then when my spirit is free I shall be able to remain ever at your side! Do it, Maurice! Oh, my love do it! I will be your wife in spirit! Let her have my body, and all will be well.”

“I listened, awe-stricken by her very earnestness.”

Where I accepted most dubiously, she seemed to grasp the situation and give full credence to Maurice’s amazing  claim. She meant it all—she meant every word she uttered. To Walla there was no moral chord strained in the thought of sharing Maurice’s heart with another. To her ideas, being with Maurice in spirit was as real as being with  him in the body. On the principle “better half the loaf