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 V

was leaning closer to him, her face suddenly glowing and alive. Through the stone figure coursed the fires of a passion that deepened the coal-black eyes and communicated a hint of light⁠—of exaltation⁠—to her whole person. It was incredibly moving. To this deep passion was due the power he had felt. It was her entire life; she lived for it, she would die for it. Her calmness of manner enhanced its effect. Hence the strength of those first impressions that had stormed him. The woman had belief; however wild and strange, it was sacred to her. The secret of her influence was⁠—conviction.

His attitude shifted several points then. The wonder in him passed over into awe. The things she knew were real. They were not merely imaginative speculations.

'I knew I was not wrong in thinking you in sympathy with this line of thought,' she was saying in lower voice, steady with earnestness, and as though she had read his mind. 'You, too, know, though perhaps you hardly realise that you know. It lies so deep in you that you only get vague feelings of it⁠—intimations of memory. Isn't that the case?'

Henriot gave assent with his eyes; it was the truth.

'What we know instinctively,' she continued, 272