Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 2).djvu/336

 not tell. They dwelt there together, and he had heard her say, 'Come; oh my love,come!'

He had meant never to look upon her face again; he had thought of her as of a creature quite as lost and dead as the Mantuan woman was, in her grave beside the reedy waters. Yet an irresistible longing to snatch her away, to send her out into light, peace, safety, to save her from the touch of the hands that had the fetters of the galleys on them, rose up in him stronger than himself, and made him speak words which he knew were as vain as ever had been the call of Este on his murdered love.

She heard him without any movement, and she answered him without emotion. She did not understand that in his sight she had lost all her Una's innocence, all her holiness and purity of power.

'I will never be angered against you,' she said simply, 'because you saved us, and were good. But to speak to me so is foolish. It is of no use. I would not leave a fox that needed me as he needs me, and you could never be his friend; there is no love between you. The hole in the earth is all the home I want; we are happy in it. If