San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-12-13

hips, that were girdled with {
white, silken cord. Magic. Miracle
Was this reality? Was the CIR
of the ferest--the girl of the
carved Enthusiastically here, ir
the Countess chamber? The
thought Of fairy flashed across hi.
mind. Yet she had seemed flesh
blood and bone when she straddled
his horse, steadied between his
arms. His heart had begun to beat
heavily, as though he were being
armed for single combat on
which the fate of a city might de-
pend. He felt the wine that he
had just drunk tingling like a
myriad hot arrows in his blood.
Yet his spirit trembled like the
hand of a nervous lad outstretched
to touch some forbidden thing.
Moving with precaution, as
though he were hunter afraid of
soaring an elusive quarry, he went
slowly forward.
1t seemed to Sidonia that this
approach was toward her soul
rather than toward her body. She
was passive. She believed. She
waited.
The young man was within
hand-reach of the motionless girl.
Sidonia saw him-yet scarcely saw
him. She was a victim-an en-
SLAYER; terrified-yet triumphant;
quailingly alive-yet numb as
parcop in n ,ooJ;t;o, of coIf byn
notism. AS if obedient to some i'm
pulse not her own, she moved the
nearest half-pace toward him.
The whole thing was unreal-a
speeches. but imprisoned dream.
Gervais lifted his hand and it came,
like the light, tentative touch of a
fowler on a shared bird, upon the
girls shoulder. Flesh and blood
With a sharp indrawing of breath
that was like a gasp he caught her
suddenly in his arms, and a sensa-
ton of fire went over him from
head to foot.
She was supple-spined, balsam-
scented, subtly warm as living
body should be. His arms, infused
with a quiyering strength, pressed
her to him. Her lips were as cold
as when he had touched them in
the Street of the Martyrs, and they
trembled. His own lips, that trem-
bled also, pressed them, and sud
denly they parted, and it seemed
to him that the girls soul, like an
unsteady flame, fhttered against
his own.
Sidonia's knees slackened under
her. There was a feeling as of
riven walls. The angel had re-
turned! 1t was an incredible
knowledge, instantaneous as light
ening, and coming like Tightening.
But it was too much. A sob
caught her throat like hand.
"Ohl What have | done? For
give me! | worship you. | am
your servant Say that you for
give mep'
Gervais spoke with the incoher-
ence of words that jostled each
other, hurried by passion and peni-
tence. He was still holding the
girl pressed to him.
81 left you in the Street of the
Martyrs because II feared to
hurt you. This morning saw you
lean from a window, and you threw
a rose to me. AS soon as | could |
do so / went again to the Street
of the Martyrs to seek for you,
but II did not even know your
name. So | prayed to the Martyrs |
that ] might find you. | adore |
you, You are my saintp'
Both were trembling, though the |
manner of Gervais' hold upon Sid
onia was as strong as the hold of |
the will on life. Her angel from
the highest heaven was, by the
words of his own mouth, the young
lord-the young lord whom she |
had been appointed by Satan to
enthrall. Whom, by the witch
philtre and the ritual of the waxen
image, she had enthralled. Witch
spells bound him to her, witch
drugs were mingled with his blood
the very fervor that set him
aquiver was an artificial flame
famed by the bellows of the devils
that help witches. Oh, it was I'M
bearable! She could not! She
would not! Her struggling soul
was inarticulate-it fought blindly
like an animal in net.
81 beg--oh, j beg-let me gop
Immediately she stood released.
her hair disheveled. Gervais, as
pale as herself, his nostriIs widened
ike a hounds, was looking at her
with the eyes of wounded man.
"This is not love-it's not love
You left me in the Street of the
didn't love me then!
Let me go noww
She was in a passion of anguish.
that had swept her for
ward like waves, dragged her back
ike the terrible force of the ebb.
She had forgotten the Countess as
as the events of the
lay before yesterday. Nothins
existed save herself and the angel
Who had deserted her-who was
Iervais, the young. lord. With a
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