The Romance of a Water-Lily, 145

 

her eyes constrained me, and I dropped them into
the stream.”

There was a pause. f

“Well,” said the girl presently, in a hard voice, in
which she strove, but vainly, quite to conceal the
trembling, “her eyes constrained thee. And what -
then?”

Michael paused. It had not occurred to him
before, but he began to doubt now whether he could
tell Salome all that had happened. He had sworn
to her but yestere’en at the sunsetting that he would
never look into woman’s eyes but hers. He knew in
his heart that he had been true to her, but as he
thought of Nerina’s black and laughing orbs, how
could he swear, that he had looked into no other
eyes? Would Salome understand that those were
no windows to a soul? How could he explain it?
He could not, and he knew she would zo¢ understand,

“Well, and what then?” repeated she.

“She told me that the penalty was death,” he
answered, slowly.

L