so low as to be only just audible.

Thinking she had become alarmed and was on the point of escaping
out of my hands, and fearing, above all things, to lose sight of
her again so soon, I slipped my arm around her slender body to
detain her, moving one foot at the same time to balance myself;
and at that moment I felt a slight blow and a sharp burning
sensation shoot into my leg, so sudden and intense that I dropped
my arm, at the same time uttering a cry of pain, and recoiled one
or two paces from her. But she stirred not when I released her;
her eyes followed my movements; then she glanced down at her
feet. I followed her look, and figure to yourself my horror when
I saw there the serpent I had so completely forgotten, and which
even that sting of sharp pain had not brought back to
remembrance! There it lay, a coil of its own thrown round one of
her ankles, and its head, raised nearly a foot high, swaying
slowly from side to side, while the swift forked tongue flickered
continuously. Then--only then--I knew what had happened, and at
the same time I understood the reason of that sudden look of
alarm in her face, the murmuring sounds she had uttered, and the
downward startled glance. Her fears had been solely for my
safety, and she had warned me! Too late! too late! In moving I
had trodden on or touched the serpent with my foot, and it had
bitten me just above the ankle. In a few moments I began to
realize the horror of my position. "Must I die! must I die!
Oh, my God, is there nothing that can save me?" I cried in my
heart.

She was still standing motionless in the same place: her eyes
wandered back from me to the snake; gradually its swaying head