Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/56

Rh upward to her own with such a radiance in them as she had never seen in any human gaze.

"Destroy me as you will, so that you love me!"

Mad words;—she had heard many such, yet they had never borne the meaning to her that these bore to her now. A shudder passed over her as she heard, a chillness of icy cold She knew it might well be that nothing save ruin might come to him through her. She stooped towards him, and her lips quivered a little as the answer stole from them.

"Well,—many will tell you that no other fate can ever come to you from me."

"Whoever does will find his lie his last word."

"But—if I say so?" "I have answered. Do what you will, since you have blessed me thus."

"Blessed you? God knows" Slow tears welled into her eyes as she saw his own so full of longing eloquence, where he gazed at her in the faintness of the waking day that left the forest gloom and forest hush around them. His trust was sweet to her, and yet so bitter; sweet because she knew that her heart gave it the answer it believed and sought, bitter because she knew that her past could never merit it or meet it. She passed her