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86ARIADNE.tired head on them and caressed them;they werenot colder than his heart,Ithought."Oh, stones, it was no dream? Tell " me itwas no dream ? You heard him first! shemuttered, lyingthere, and then she crouched andwept and shuddered, and laid her soft mouthand beating breast to those senseless flags, becauseonce they had borne his feet and once hadheard his voice. Would he have laughed hadhe been there ? Perhaps.Idrew back into the gloom and let her be.She had no thought of me or any living thing,save of him by whom she had been forsaken:no thought at all.She was mad still,if Love be madness: — andnot the sublimest self-oblivion which can everraise the mortal to deity, asIthink.Ilet her be;she had fallen forward with herarms flung outward, and her head resting on thestones. Strong shudders shook her at intervalsin the convulsion of her weeping; but she wasotherwise still. The warmth from the burningwood fell onher, and touched to gold the loosethick coils of her hair. Iclosed the door, and

ARIADNE. 87went out and sat clown on the stair outside, andwaitedin the dark.Other womenone might have striven to consolewith tidings of the peace that lies in riches;butherIdared not. When a greatheart is breakingbecause all life and all eternity are ruined, whocan talk of the coarse foolish sweetness that liesfor fools and roguesingold? Icould not at theleast. Perhaps, because stitching there wherethe streetsmeet, and the fountain fallsin the openan by the river, gold has always seemed so littleto me: so great,indeed, as a tempter,but as acomforter — how poor.Isat still in the dark, andIdid not know howthe hours went;the lamp was burning below inthe wall of the twisting staircase, and there wasthe hum of the distant voices on the bridge, andthe sound of the waterwashingitself away underthe bridge arches, and now and then the beat ofoars.Ihad clone the best thatIcould, butitweighed on me as thoughIhad done somecrime.Perhaps she woulcl reproach me for havingbrought her back to consciousness,as the suicide,

86ARIADNE.tired head on them and caressed them;they werenot colder than his heart,Ithought."Oh, stones, it was no dream? Tell " me itwas no dream ? You heard him first! shemuttered, lyingthere, and then she crouched andwept and shuddered, and laid her soft mouthand beating breast to those senseless flags, becauseonce they had borne his feet and once hadheard his voice. Would he have laughed hadhe been there ? Perhaps.Idrew back into the gloom and let her be.She had no thought of me or any living thing,save of him by whom she had been forsaken:no thought at all.She was mad still,if Love be madness: — andnot the sublimest self-oblivion which can everraise the mortal to deity, asIthink.Ilet her be;she had fallen forward with herarms flung outward, and her head resting on thestones. Strong shudders shook her at intervalsin the convulsion of her weeping; but she wasotherwise still. <strong>The</strong> warmth from the burningwood fell onher, and touched to gold the loosethick coils of her hair. Iclosed the door, and

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