Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/242

Rh He looked at her till he grew sick with the heat of the flames, with the blackness of the shadows, with the spice of the pine perfume, with dead memories that would come to him do what he would. He rose impetuously; he had been, on foot or in saddle many days and nights, eating scantily, sleeping still less; all his frame was aching, and his eyeballs were scorched with want of rest.

"You will not leave here?" he asked her, half imperiously, half hesitatingly, since, though he commanded; he yet feared her.

"No."

" You give me your word?"

"Yes."

"Then I will go seek for Veni He should be here ere now." "Go."

The monosyllables were cold, impassive, unwavering; to her he could be now and hereafter but an assassin, whose crime had been frustrated by hazard, yet could be none the less vile because in its issue foiled. She obeyed him lest a worse thing should come unto the man he had already wronged, but she submitted herself to him in nought else.

He knew that, her promise given, twenty avenues of escape might open to her, and she would still