Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 2.djvu/296

Rh the dry grasses, with his arm flung round the hound's neck; they were comrades—they were both here to save her. He lay long gazing at the glimpse of starry sky that gleamed above, while the chimes tolled slowly from the bell-tower of the Benedictine monastery, and the moonlight poured down on to his mighty limbs stretched there in rest, and the gladiator breadth of the vast uncovered chest; only to know that he was beneath the same roof with her through the long silent hours, made his brain giddy, his heart on fire.

It was very long before at length a fitful, restless, dreamy sleep came to him.