Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/260

Rh fever, and the anguish of passion breaking one moment through the frozen tranquillity of her face.

"Not you? Ah! would it were not, my love, my love, my love!" In the yearníng of the accent a tenderness unutterable broke out and burst all bonds; as he heard the darkness passed from his face—a glow like the morníng shone there.

"You love me thus! You cannot have betrayed me"

She stayed him; she knew that this glory of reawakening joy must be quenched in an eternal night. "Wait. I love you. I cannot lie to you there. But that ends, now and always. I say, you have been sinned against heavily; I must sin also against you—sin without shame by forsaking you, sin with shame by life with you. I choose the least. We are divorced for ever. We must be as are the dead to one another. Forgive me, if you can; curse me, if you cannot Whatever you do—leave me, as though death were in my touch."

All the ardour, and the yearning, and the warmth had passed from her voice; it was sad as despair, and as inflexible.

He listened, watching her with a grave wonderíng