Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 3).djvu/166

 bloodshot, her veins swelled and grew dark, her mouth was parched as with great thirst. Still she never moved, she was unconscious of physical suffering, she was saying always to herself—'He will go! he will go!'

The most terrible, the most cruel temptation that any human soul could ever know assailed her.

Almost she felt as if the priestly fables were true; as if the Power of Evil in bodily shape stood over her in the burning heat, with vast black wings outstretched above her head.

'Oh, dear God, help me!' she cried aloud in utter agony.

All that was violent, imperious, and sinful in her sided with the mighty passion she bore her lover, and urged her to bury for ever this secret, which would put an end to all her joy, and give him to the world. All that was noble, tender, and full of the impulse of self-sacrifice in her heart told her that to be false to him, to deceive him, to destroy his life that it might slowly consume itself away within her arms, would be as base as though she killed him sleeping.

The darkness and the light strove for the mastery over her.