Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/70

Rh could ever measure. I tell you that the chief of my history must remain hidden from you—for a while, at least; perhaps for ever; and that if you had lived less in your wandering freedom and more in the intrigue of cities, you would have heard every evil, every danger, every unsparing sorcery, and every pitiless unscrupulousness attríbuted to my name, and—for the most part—rightly. Now, knowing this for the mere outline of a deadly truth, you can scarce call me 'noblest among women,' and you will be mad if into my hands you yield your future. Believe me, and fly from me while you may."

She stretched her hands out to him with a gesture of farewell, that had in it an exceeding tenderness! she loved him well enough to do for him what she had done for no other—save him from his own passions, spare him from herself.

He took her hands in his, and laid his lips on them in one long kiss; then lifted his head and raísed his eyes to her with a regard in which a feeling, far deeper than the mere voluptuous fervour of the senses, blent with a loyalty grave and calm as that of one who pledges his life, not lightly, but witting what he does—looked at her softly and thoughtfully.