Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/41

30 was floating, through the darkness that closed on sight and sense, and seemed to him, as to her, the presaging shadows of dissolution, the words reached, the touch thrilled him, with an electric shock, a sweetness of hope so wild, so rich, so breathless, that it called him back to consciousness, as in priestly legends the touch of the anointed chrism has summoned the departing soul to earth.

He raised himself slightly with convulsivo strength, a living warmth flushed his bloodless features.

"Say it again!" he whispered, With that terrible doubt still in his look of one who fears the joy he touches will vanish mocking him. "Say it once more—once more!" Through the mist before his vision, through the blackness of the forest shades, through the haze of flickeríng foliage, and watery moonlight, and stars thát seemed to stoop and touch the earth, he saw her eyes grow humid, lustrous, gentle with an infinite gentleness.

"Say that I love you? Yes—I say it now."

The words were low and slowly uttered; proud still, for in them she yielded far, but tender with a tenderness the deeper for that pride which stooped, not without lingering reluctance still, to own itself