gazing steadfastly into his own, and she became once more the pretty
little daughter of the innkeeper, and he found his voice again.

"And you," he whispered tremblingly--"you child of visions and
enchantment, how is it that you so bewitch me that I loved you even
before I saw?"

She drew herself up beside him with an air of rare dignity.

"The call of the Past," she said; "and besides," she added proudly, "in
the real life I am a princess--"

"A princess!" he cried.

"--and my mother is a queen!"

At this, little Vezin utterly lost his head. Delight tore at his heart
and swept him into sheer ecstasy. To hear that sweet singing voice, and
to see those adorable little lips utter such things, upset his balance
beyond all hope of control. He took her in his arms and covered her
unresisting face with kisses.

But even while he did so, and while the hot passion swept him, he felt
that she was soft and loathsome, and that her answering kisses stained
his very soul.... And when, presently, she had freed herself and
vanished into the darkness, he stood there, leaning against the wall in
a state of collapse, creeping with horror from the touch of her yielding
body, and inwardly raging at the weakness that he already dimly
realised must prove his undoing.