Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 2.djvu/24

Rh into the still and silvered seas. "I told you nothing but bitterness could come to you from my friendship; nothing else can. Why would you not believe me while it was time?" There was an intense and weary mournfulness in the words; they carried a deadly meaning to him, he gave them but one significance.

"You mean that even your memory is forbidden me?—that even my worship of you dishonours you?"

"Your words are as strange as your presence here. This is the time and place for neither."

"My words are strange! God help me! I hardly know what I say. Answer me, in pity's sake, what are they to you?"

"Who?"

And as she spoke, beneath the unbent hauteur of her voice and of her glance there was something as nearly kindred to anxiety and alarm as could approach Idalia's nature.

"Those men who were with you."

"Let me pass, sir. These are not questions for which you have right, or to which I give submission."

"I swear they shall be answered! What are they to you?"