Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/64

Rh for my sake. Do not turn so now. You havé your own bold broad creeds of simple honour and dishonour; keep to them; men wander too far from them into subtle windings now."

His teeth clenched on his beard with an agony of impotent impatience.

"O God! do not trifle with philosophies! Answer me straightly, for the pity of Heaven; what is your life that you repent it thus?"

"I cannot tell you wholly. It is enough that it has forfeited all right to such a trust as yours."

"Nay, let me judge that, I say again. Let me judge fully—give me your confidence, your history; did I not swear to you that the worst trial would never chango my fealty? I love you, my sovereign, my sorceress! What matters it to me whence you come, what you bring?"

His voice, that had been grave with a gentle command as he spoke the first words, sank down to the hot, vehement, reckless utterance of a love that was ready to take, risk, suffer, and imperil all things so that only the sweetness of her lips closed once again on his, so that only the gift of her loveliness were yielded to him one hour.

She rose, and looked him once more in the eyes, with a serene, fathomless gaze, in that pity and that