aflame with wrath, but Theos, leaning against Sah-luma's couch,
heard her with as much impassiveness as though her threatening
voice were but the sound of an idle wind. Only, when she ceased,
he turned his untroubled gaze calmly and full upon her,--and
then,--to his own infinite surprise she shivered and shrank
backwards, while over her countenance flitted a vague,
undefinable, almost spectral expression of terror. He saw it, and
swift words came at once to his lips,--words that uttered
themselves without premeditation.

"To-morrow, Lysia, thou shalt claim nothing!" he said in a still,
composed voice that to himself had something strange and unearthly
in its tone ... "Not even a grave! Get thee hence! ... pray to thy
gods if thou hast any,--for truly there is need of prayer! Thou
shalt not harm Sah-luma, . . his love for thee may be his present
curse,--but it shall not work his future ruin! As for me, . . though
canst not slay me, Lysia,--seeing that to myself I am dead
already! ... dead, yet alive in thought, . . and thou dost now seem
to my soul but the shadow of a past Crime, . . the ghost of a
temptation overcome and baffled! Ah, thou sweet Sin!" here he
suddenly moved toward her and caught her hands hard, looking
fearlessly the while at her flushed half-troubled face,--"I do
confess that I have loved thee, . . I do own that I have found thee
fair! ... but now--now that I see thee as thou art, in all the
nameless horror of thy beauty, I do entreat,".. and his accents
sank to a low yet fervent supplication--"I do entreat the most
high God that I may be released from thee forever!"

She gazed upon him with dilated, terrified eyes, ... and he dimly
wondered, as he looked, why she should seem to fear him?--Not a