Out of Harm's Way 303
Pll cure you, and I’ll take you away with me. But
will you let me make one condition? ”
She lifted her face to his. In spite of the physical
wreckage of the last few months, love was able to
transform her bodily. She was radiantly beautiful.
She only waited for him to take her in his arms. She
was trembling all over with ecstatic passion.
I gripped the arms of my chair in futile rage. Before
my very face the only woman I had ever loved had
disowned me, cast me off with contempt, and was
offering herself to another man with the same impulsive
ardour that she had once shown toward me. No, by
all the powers of hell, it was worse! For I had wooed
her rapturously ; and he had made no effort.
“One condition? ’’ her voice rang high and clear
through the studio. “I’m giving you myself, my
Lord and lover ; body and soul to have and to hold.
What do conditions matter to me?”
“Well,” said King Lamus, “ it’s really only a small
condition ; and to prove that I keep my promises, I
must keep them all round. You see, I promised to
cure Sir Peter, too, and so my condition is that he
comes with us.”’
She sprang to her feet as if a cobra had struck her.
Her long arms wrestled against the unresisting air.
The humiliation was unspeakable. Lamus put his
pipe away in his pocket, rose to his feet, and stretched
himself like some great lazy lion. He took her in his
arms and held her firmly, fixing his eyes upon her
tortured face ; the long jagged scarlet mouth stretched
to a tragic square through which the scream refused
to come.
He shook her shoulders gently. Her rigid muscles
began to relax.
“It’s a deal, then, little girl,”’ he said.
Her mouth closed, and then curled itself into a smile
of exquisite happiness. The sombre fire of lust died
out of her eyes. They kindled with the light of under-
standing.