Lilith

As I lay sleepless, I began to hear a stifled moaning. It went on for a good while, and then came the cry of a
child, followed by a terrible shriek. I sprang up and darted into the passage: from another door in it came the
white leopardess with a new−born baby in her mouth, carrying it like a cub of her own. I threw myself upon
her, and compelled her to drop the infant, which fell on the stone slabs with a piteous wail.
At the cry appeared the muffled woman. She stepped over us, the beast and myself, where we lay struggling
in the narrow passage, took up the child, and carried it away. Returning, she lifted me off the animal, opened
the door, and pushed me gently out. At my heels followed the leopardess.
"She too has failed me!" thought I; "−−given me up to the beast to be settled with at her leisure! But we shall
have a tussle for it!"
I ran down the stair, fearing she would spring on my back, but she followed me quietly. At the foot I turned to
lay hold of her, but she sprang over my head; and when again I turned to face her, she was crouching at my
feet! I stooped and stroked her lovely white skin; she responded by licking my bare feet with her hard dry
tongue. Then I patted and fondled her, a well of tenderness overflowing in my heart: she might be treacherous
too, but if I turned from every show of love lest it should be feigned, how was I ever to find the real love
which must be somewhere in every world?
I stood up; she rose, and stood beside me.
Lilith
A bulky object fell with a heavy squelch in the middle of the street, a few yards from us. I ran to it, and found
a pulpy mass, with just form enough left to show it the body of a woman. It must have been thrown from
some neighbouring window! I looked around me: the Shadow was walking along the other side of the way,
with the white leopardess again at his heel!
I followed and gained upon them, urging in my heart for the leopardess that probably she was not a free
agent. When I got near them, however, she turned and flew at me with such a hideous snarl, that instinctively
I drew back: instantly she resumed her place behind the Shadow. Again I drew near; again she flew at me, her
eyes flaming like live emeralds. Once more I made the experiment: she snapped at me like a dog, and bit me.
My heart gave way, and I uttered a cry; whereupon the creature looked round with a glance that plainly
meant−−"Why WOULD you make me do it?"
I turned away angry with myself: I had been losing my time ever since I entered the place! night as it was I
would go straight to the palace! From the square I had seen it−−high above the heart of the city, compassed
with many defences, more a fortress than a palace!
But I found its fortifications, like those of the city, much neglected, and partly ruinous. For centuries, clearly,
they had been of no account! It had great and strong gates, with something like a drawbridge to them over a
rocky chasm; but they stood open, and it was hard to believe that water had ever occupied the hollow before
them. All was so still that sleep seemed to interpenetrate the structure, causing the very moonlight to look
discordantly awake. I must either enter like a thief, or break a silence that rendered frightful the mere thought
of a sound!
Like an outcast dog I was walking about the walls, when I came to a little recess with a stone bench: I took
refuge in it from the wind, lay down, and in spite of the cold fell fast asleep.
I was wakened by something leaping upon me, and licking my face with the rough tongue of a feline animal.
"It is the white leopardess!" I thought. "She is come to suck my blood!−−and why should she not have it?−−it
would cost me more to defend than to yield it!" So I lay still, expecting a shoot of pain. But the pang did not
arrive; a pleasant warmth instead began to diffuse itself through me. Stretched at my back, she lay as close to
Lilith 79