San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1926-01-03
CHAPTER XXXII.
.HE girls arms frightened con-
vulsively about him.

You shall not lose Heaven for mew
"You are my Heaven" said the
young man.
At that Sidonia's eyes closed
quickly, and then opened tear-suf-
fused, and her throat was con-
stricted by a desire to sob. He
would go with her-he would dare
perdition; she could not prevent it.
And the tiny, poignant flicker of
hope was painful as a stab. Her
breast was shaken and she began
uncontrollably to weep. Gervaise
drew the girl up SO that her head,
with its leaf-mixed tresses, was
against his shoulder. And they
stayed so, looking out from the
shallow half-cave into the still,
gray air.
when / have delivered you
from the power of Satan | will
marry you in the Church of st.
Saviour" said Gervais. He made
the statement quite simply. In the
clarity and singleness of his faith,
if in nothing else, he was the
knight-errant of the wandering
ballad-singer's tales.
mo, Gervais, no. You-you
should have let me jump into the
deep water"
But her fearful voice had no con-
vinction in it.
"Sidonia, you shall not speak
like that. Stretch out your arm,
my saint"
She did so-a thin arm that
quivered. He had drawn his dag
ger-the brief steel with which a
knight administers the coup-de-
grace to fallen foe. He pricked
his own left wrist smartly and
then barely grazed the skin of hers.
The girl WINGED, for she was I'M
strung. Gervais allowed the thick
drops of his blood to fall where
her blood thinly started from the
Craze, and her outstretched, CULVER
ing wrist was laced with red.
awe are betrothed. | have
mixed my life with yours. Moth
ing can separate us now"
Then the girl understood the
significance of what he had done.
Her heart paused. She felt fear
and joy. This was solemn-an
irrevocable rite of lovers. Under
a mutual impulse they enclasped
and kissed each other-slowly,
sacredly, like bride and bride
groom. Such rite was as bind
ing as a marriage; each felt al
ready welded to the other.
Sidonia did not speak; she had
no words. Her life was no longer
a thing apart, like strange, en-
chanted tree, where no bird
alights. They huddled in the shall
low half-cave, finding infinite,
magical, unimagined blisses in the
mere nearness, that was mute, and
keyed to kind of tension.
Beneath them the great, dark
pool. slept, keeping its secrets till
the Day of Judgment. Not reed
was stirred; not a leaf fell. The
evergreens were motionless as
masses of malachite. The black
brown horse fed with a slight crop
ping sound, it's broad red leather
bride and red saddle embossed with
gold, eye-snaring as patch of
blood on strewn rushes.
After longish while they began
to speak to each other. Sidonia
made little thoughts concerning
this and that subject. But she did
not say nat she had at first mis-
taken him for an angel-she felt
ashamed!
And she said nothing whatever
of Sabine. That knowledge was
like a poisonous toad that should
be buried under large stone-a
stone that it could never lift. Ger
vais spoke of himself-brief, des-
ultory things. They were like the
condolences of a schoolboy. But
to Sidonia they might have been
the utterances of inspiration itself.
She had never before mingled in
this manner with another human
being, and like a fly that has
slipped suddenly into honey the
sweetness submerged her until her
soul was breathless.
They took no account of time.
For all practical purposes they
might have been in eternity, which
is timeless. They were betrothed;
they were no longer two, but one.
Yet Satan must be overcome and
the marriage words of the priest
spoken in the Church of st. Saviour
before each found full joy in the
other. Sidonia realized this. Yes,
Satan, her Master, must be over
come.
At some time after the sunless
moon had come and gone I'M
marked, half-grown child of for
est nomad folk-a girl clad only in
tattered petticoat, with wild hair
came straying down into the hol-
low, silent-footed as fawn and
without fear. Her people were
pagan-kin to the spirits of
the wild, so Christians said. She
was carrying food and bit at an
apple as she came. Sidonia and
young Gervais remembered that
they were hungry. The foresight
looked at them with serious, in
scrutable eyes; she was grave, I'M
amazad renoofa When Car1yoic