Already this slip of a child seemed to dominate him; he felt her power
coming over him more and more; something emanated from her that stole
over his senses and made him aware that her personality, for all its
simple grace, held forces that were stately, imposing, august. He saw
her again moving through smoke and flame amid broken and tempestuous
scenery, alarmingly strong, her terrible mother by her side. Dimly this
shone through her smile and appearance of charming innocence.

"You will, I know," she repeated, holding him with her eyes.

They were quite alone up there on the ramparts, and the sensation that
she was overmastering him stirred a wild sensuousness in his blood. The
mingled abandon and reserve in her attracted him furiously, and all of
him that was man rose up and resisted the creeping influence, at the
same time acclaiming it with the full delight of his forgotten youth. An
irresistible desire came to him to question her, to summon what still
remained to him of his own little personality in an effort to retain the
right to his normal self.

The girl had grown quiet again, and was now leaning on the broad wall
close beside him, gazing out across the darkening plain, her elbows on
the coping, motionless as a figure carved in stone. He took his courage
in both hands.

"Tell me, Ilsé," he said, unconsciously imitating her own purring
softness of voice, yet aware that he was utterly in earnest, "what is
the meaning of this town, and what is this real life you speak of? And
why is it that the people watch me from morning to night? Tell me what
it all means? And, tell me," he added more quickly with passion in his