Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/226

 respect was left to him, that the first signal for separa- tion should be made by him. It would ease the situation for both of them, he felt, if from the begin- ning he showed her plainly that he expected nothing but desertion, that she was free to go, to leave him, that he was fully prepared for the words that should tell him of her intention, though for the moment they remained unspoken. Therefore, though Minah held out her arms toward him, he repulsed her gently, and retreating farther into the shadows, cried warningly: "Have a care! Have a care lest you also become infected by the evil.”

Again Minah crept toward him, with arms outstretched for an embrace, and again he evaded her A little moonbeam struggling through the in- terstices of the wattled walls fell full upon her face, and revealed to him her eyes wide with sympathy, dewy with tears, and yearning after him with a great love. The sight was so unexpected that it smote him with the violence of a blow, sending a strange thrill through all his ruined body, and gripping his heart so that he fought for breath like one distressed by running.

"Have a care!" he cried again; but Minah dis- regarded his warning.

"What care I?" she replied. "What care I? Do you think that my love is so slight a thing that it will abide with you only in the days of your prosperity? Am I like unto a woman of the town, a wanton who loves only when all is well and when the silver dollars are many and bright? Am I so fashioned that I