through hot yesterday, for I had been sleeping day-long and
night-long, all through the falling evening under moonlight and
starlight the night through.

And now it was dawn, and I think too that neither of us had moved at
all; for the last thing I remembered before I went to sleep was the
tips of her fingers brushing my cheek, as she knelt over me with
downdrooping arm, and still now I felt them there. Moreover she was
just finishing some fainting measure that died before it had time to
get painful in its passion.

Dear Lord! how I loved her! Yet did I not dare to touch her, or even
speak to her. She smiled with delight when she saw I was awake again,
and slid down her hand on to mine, but some shuddering dread made me
draw it away again hurriedly; then I saw the smile leave her face:
what would I not have given for courage to hold her body quite tight
to mine? But I was so weak.

She said:

"Have you been very happy?"

"Yea," I said.

It was the first word I had spoken there, and my voice sounded
strange.

"Ah!" she said, "you will talk more when you get used to the air of
the Hollow Land. Have you been thinking of your past life at all? If
not, try to think of it. What thing in Heaven or Earth do you Wish for