I descried4 her walking swiftly over the grass, away from the river, took one plunge5 for a farewell restorative, and set out to follow her. The last visit of the white leech6, and the blow of the woman, had enfeebled me, but already my strength was reviving, and I kept her in sight without difficulty.
“Is this, then, the end?” I said as I went, and my heart brooded a sad song. Her angry, hating eyes haunted me. I could understand her resentment7 at my having forced life upon her, but how had I further injured her? Why should she loathe8 me? Could modesty9 itself be indignant with true service? How should the proudest woman, conscious of my every action, cherish against me the least sense of disgracing wrong? How reverently10 had I not touched her! As a father his motherless child, I had borne and tended her! Had all my labour, all my despairing hope gone to redeem11 only ingratitude12? “No,” I answered myself; “beauty must have a heart! However profoundly hidden, it must be there! The deeper buried, the stronger and truer will it wake at last in its beautiful grave! To rouse that heart were a better gift to her than the happiest life! It would be to give her a nobler, a higher life!”
She was ascending13 a gentle slope before me, walking straight and steady as one that knew whither, when I became aware that she was increasing the distance between us. I summoned my strength, and it came in full tide. My veins14 filled with fresh life! My body seemed to become ethereal, and, following like an easy wind, I rapidly overtook her.
Not once had she looked behind. Swiftly she moved, like a Greek goddess to rescue, but without haste. I was within three yards of her, when she turned sharply, yet with grace unbroken, and stood. Fatigue15 or heat she showed none. Her paleness was not a pallor, but a pure whiteness; her breathing was slow and deep. Her eyes seemed to fill the heavens, and give light to the world. It was nearly noon, but the sense was upon me as of a great night in which an invisible dew makes the stars look large.
“Why do you follow me?” she asked, quietly but rather sternly, as if she had never before seen me.
“I have lived so long,” I answered, “on the mere16 hope of your eyes, that I must want to see them again!”
“You WILL not be spared!” she said coldly. “I command you to stop where you stand.”
“Not until I see you in a place of safety will I leave you,” I replied.
“Then take the consequences,” she said, and resumed her swift-gliding walk.
But as she turned she cast on me a glance, and I stood as if run through with a spear. Her scorn had failed: she would kill me with her beauty!
“Have pity upon me!” I cried.
She gave no heed18. I followed her like a child whose mother pretends to abandon him. “I will be your slave!” I said, and laid my hand on her arm.
She turned as if a serpent had bit her. I cowered19 before the blaze of her eyes, but could not avert20 my own.
“Pity me,” I cried again.
She resumed her walking.
The whole day I followed her. The sun climbed the sky, seemed to pause on its summit, went down the other side. Not a moment did she pause, not a moment did I cease to follow. She never turned her head, never relaxed her pace.
The sun went below, and the night came up. I kept close to her: if I lost sight of her for a moment, it would be for ever!
All day long we had been walking over thick soft grass: abruptly21 she stopped, and threw herself upon it. There was yet light enough to show that she was utterly22 weary. I stood behind her, and gazed down on her for a moment.
Did I love her? I knew she was not good! Did I hate her? I could not leave her! I knelt beside her.
“Begone! Do not dare touch me,” she cried.
Her arms lay on the grass by her sides as if paralyzed.
Suddenly they closed about my neck, rigid23 as those of the torture-maiden. She drew down my face to hers, and her lips clung to my cheek. A sting of pain shot somewhere through me, and pulsed. I could not stir a hair’s breadth. Gradually the pain ceased. A slumberous24 weariness, a dreamy pleasure stole over me, and then I knew nothing.
All at once I came to myself. The moon was a little way above the horizon, but spread no radiance; she was but a bright thing set in blackness. My cheek smarted; I put my hand to it, and found a wet spot. My neck ached: there again was a wet spot! I sighed heavily, and felt very tired. I turned my eyes listlessly around me—and saw what had become of the light of the moon: it was gathered about the lady! she stood in a shimmering25 nimbus! I rose and staggered toward her.
“Down!” she cried imperiously, as to a rebellious26 dog. “Follow me a step if you dare!”
“I will!” I murmured, with an agonised effort.
“Set foot within the gates of my city, and my people will stone you: they do not love beggars!”
I was deaf to her words. Weak as water, and half awake, I did not know that I moved, but the distance grew less between us. She took one step back, raised her left arm, and with the clenched27 hand seemed to strike me on the forehead. I received as it were a blow from an iron hammer, and fell.
I sprang to my feet, cold and wet, but clear-headed and strong. Had the blow revived me? it had left neither wound nor pain!—But how came I wet?—I could not have lain long, for the moon was no higher!
The lady stood some yards away, her back toward me. She was doing something, I could not distinguish what. Then by her sudden gleam I knew she had thrown off her garments, and stood white in the dazed moon. One moment she stood—and fell forward.
A streak28 of white shot away in a swift-drawn line. The same instant the moon recovered herself, shining out with a full flash, and I saw that the streak was a long-bodied thing, rushing in great, low-curved bounds over the grass. Dark spots seemed to run like a stream adown its back, as if it had been fleeting29 along under the edge of a wood, and catching30 the shadows of the leaves.
“God of mercy!” I cried, “is the terrible creature speeding to the night-infolded city?” and I seemed to hear from afar the sudden burst and spread of outcrying terror, as the pale savage31 bounded from house to house, rending32 and slaying33.
While I gazed after it fear-stricken, past me from behind, like a swift, all but noiseless arrow, shot a second large creature, pure white. Its path was straight for the spot where the lady had fallen, and, as I thought, lay. My tongue clave to the roof of my mouth. I sprang forward pursuing the beast. But in a moment the spot I made for was far behind it.
“It was well,” I thought, “that I could not cry out: if she had risen, the monster would have been upon her!”
But when I reached the place, no lady was there; only the garments she had dropped lay dusk in the moonlight.
I stood staring after the second beast. It tore over the ground with yet greater swiftness than the former—in long, level, skimming leaps, the very embodiment of wasteless speed. It followed the line the other had taken, and I watched it grow smaller and smaller, until it disappeared in the uncertain distance.
But where was the lady? Had the first beast surprised her, creeping upon her noiselessly? I had heard no shriek34! and there had not been time to devour35 her! Could it have caught her up as it ran, and borne her away to its den3? So laden36 it could not have run so fast! and I should have seen that it carried something!
Horrible doubts began to wake in me. After a thorough but fruitless search, I set out in the track of the two animals.
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1
brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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hideously
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| adv.可怕地，非常讨厌地 | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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descried
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| adj.被注意到的，被发现的，被看到的 | |
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plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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leech
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| n.水蛭，吸血鬼，榨取他人利益的人；vt.以水蛭吸血；vi.依附于别人 | |
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7
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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loathe
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| v.厌恶，嫌恶 | |
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modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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reverently
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| adv.虔诚地 | |
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redeem
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| v.买回，赎回，挽回，恢复，履行（诺言等） | |
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ingratitude
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| n.忘恩负义 | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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volition
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| n.意志；决意 | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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cowered
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| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的过去式 ) | |
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avert
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| v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等) | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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slumberous
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| a.昏昏欲睡的 | |
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shimmering
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| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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rebellious
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| adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的 | |
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clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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streak
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| n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动 | |
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fleeting
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| adj.短暂的，飞逝的 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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32
rending
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| v.撕碎( rend的现在分词 )；分裂；（因愤怒、痛苦等而）揪扯（衣服或头发等）；（声音等）刺破 | |
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slaying
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| 杀戮。 | |
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shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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35
devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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