Lilith

"Doubtless you pitied me!"
"Never had woman more claim on pity, or less on any other feeling!"
With an expression of pain, mortification, and anger unutterable, she turned from me and stood silent.
Starless night lay profound in the gulfs of her eyes: hate of him who brought it back had slain their splendour.
The light of life was gone from them.
"Had you failed to rouse me, what would you have done?" she asked suddenly without moving.
"I would have buried it."
"It! What?−−You would have buried THIS?" she exclaimed, flashing round upon me in a white fury, her
arms thrown out, and her eyes darting forks of cold lightning.
"Nay; that I saw not! That, weary weeks of watching and tending have brought back to you," I
answered−−for with such a woman I must be plain! "Had I seen the smallest sign of decay, I would at once
have buried you."
"Dog of a fool!" she cried, "I was but in a trance−−Samoil! what a fate!−−Go and fetch the she−savage from
whom you borrowed this hideous disguise."
"I made it for you. It is hideous, but I did my best."
She drew herself up to her tall height.
"How long have I been insensible?" she demanded. "A woman could not have made that dress in a day!"
"Not in twenty days," I rejoined, "hardly in thirty!"
"Ha! How long do you pretend I have lain unconscious?−−Answer me at once."
"I cannot tell how long you had lain when I found you, but there was nothing left of you save skin and bone:
that is more than three months ago.−−Your hair was beautiful, nothing else! I have done for it what I could."
"My poor hair!" she said, and brought a great armful of it round from behind her; "−−it will be more than a
three−months' care to bring YOU to life again!−−I suppose I must thank you, although I cannot say I am
grateful!"
"There is no need, madam: I would have done the same for any woman−−yes, or for any man either!"
"How is it my hair is not tangled?" she said, fondling it.
"It always drifted in the current."
"How?−−What do you mean?"
"I could not have brought you to life but by bathing you in the hot river every morning."
She gave a shudder of disgust, and stood for a while with her gaze fixed on the hurrying water. Then she
turned to me:
Lilith
Lilith 69