Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 2.djvu/28

Rh "Whatever it bring, I said before, I accept it! My life is yours to save or throw away, as you will; answer me, which shall it be?"

There was a suppressed violence, a terrible suffering, in his voice, that moved her almost with such shuddering pain as though she witnessed his death before her sight; in the light falling from the opened windows she could see the burning gleam in his eyes and the red flush that darkened the bronze of his face.

"Live!" she answered him, while her own voice lost its chillness. "You do not know now what you say; with calmer hours you will see how little worth it I or any woman could be. You may meet me again,—but you must speak no more of such words as you have spoken to-night. I have your promise?" "Till my strength shall fail me to keep it."

"When it does, we shall meet no more."

Then she left him, and passed through the chamber that was opened to the night, till, in the distance, the clustered flowers and statues veiled her among them, and the closing of a door echoed with a dull sound through the stillness.

He stood alone on the terrace, the noise of the sea surging in his ear, his pulse beating, his brain