"Not because I knew that you and he would be happy, but because I wished to snatch my own soul from perdition. I think it is safe now--but oh, my God! it is like the souls of many other mortals--saved in spite of myself! Phyllis, you have been my salvation. You are a girl; you cannot understand how near a woman may go to the bottomless pit through the love of a man. You fancy that love lifts one to the heaven of heavens; that it means purity--self-sacrifice. Well, there is a love that means purity; and there is a love that means self-sacrifice.
Self-sacrifice: that is, that a woman is ready to sacrifice herself--her life--her soul--for the man whom she loves. I tell you--I, who know the truth--I, who have been at the brink. It is not that the pit is dear to us; it is that the man is dear to us, and we must go with him,--wherever he goes,--even down into hell itself with him."
"Oh, Ella, Ella! this is the love of the satyr. It is not the love of the one who is made in the image of God."
"Let it be what it is; it is a power that has to be reckoned upon so long as we remain creatures of the earth, earthy."
"It is a thing that we should beat into the earth from which it came."
The girl had sprung to her feet, and was speaking with white face and clenched hands. "Down into the earth"--she stamped upon the floor--"even if we have to throw our bodies into the grave into which we trample it. Woman, I tell you that the other love,--the love which is the truth,--is stronger than the love of the satyr."
"Is it? is it, Phyllis? Yes, sometimes. Yes; it was a word that you spoke in his hearing that saved him--him--Herbert--and that saved me that night when I came to you--when I waited for you--you did not know anything of why I came. I will tell you now--"
"No, no, no! Oh, Ella! for God's sake, tell me nothing! I think I know all that I want to know; and I know that you had strength given to you by God to come to me that night. I had not to go to you. But I have come to you to-night. We are together, you and I; and we are the same as when we were girls together--oh, just the same! Who shall come between us, Ella?"
"Who? Who? You came here to save me. I knew it. But you had saved me before you came. Phyllis, in this very room I was alone with him. I was mad--mad with jealousy at the thought of losing him--though I knew that I had lost him--I was mad! The passion breathed from the roses--the twilight full of the memories of the spring we spent together in Italy--all took possession of my heart--my soul. I whispered to him to come to me--to come to me. And he came."
The cry the girl gave, as she covered her face with her hands and dropped back into her chair, was very pitiful.
"He came to me--but only one step--one little step, Phyllis; then there came before his eyes a vision of your face--he felt your hand--cool as a lily--upon his wrist--he heard your voice speaking into his ear; he turned and fled--fled through that window--fled from the demon that had taken possession of this room--I said so to you."
"Thank God--oh, Ella, thank God!"
"That is my cry--thank God--thank God; and yet--and yet--God help me!
I feel ready to throw myself at your feet and say 'Give him back to me! Give him back to me!' "
She had stood with her hands clasped above her head at her first utterance of that imploration--"Give him back to me!" Then she threw herself on her knees and passionately caught both the girl's hands in her own, crying, "Give him back to me!"
Phyllis flung her arms about her neck, and bowed her own head down to the shoulder of the woman whom she loved and pitied.
And then----
Then through the silence of the house--the hour was almost midnight--there sounded the loud and continuous ringing of a bell.
It was only the usual visitors' bell of the house; but its effect at that hour was startling--shocking!
The two women were on their feet, waiting in silence, but with wildly beating hearts, for what was coming--they felt that something terrible was coming. The bell had an ominous jangle. They heard the footsteps of the one servant who remained up to put out the lights, going to answer the summons of the bell--they heard a man's voice speaking in a low tone in the hall--they heard a man's steps approach the door of their room. The door opened, and Mr. Ayrton appeared before them.
He closed the door slowly, and stood there staring not at his daughter, but at Ella Linton. On his face was an expression that Phyllis had never seen on it before. It frightened her. She could not speak.
He stood there, with his eyes fixed upon Ella Linton--rigid--silent as a figure that symbolizes Death.
The silence became appalling.
"For God's sake speak, if you are living!" cried Ella in a whisper tremulous with terror.
He did not speak--he stood there, staring at her.
"What does he mean? What does he mean?" said the woman, after another dreadful pause. "Why does he stand there, Phyllis, staring at me?
Why---- Oh, my God! I see it--I see it on his face--my husband--Stephen--dead--he is dead--you came to bring the news to me. Look, Phyllis, he cannot say 'No'--he would say 'No' unless I had guessed the truth--he would say it--he would have some pity. Is it the truth?
Man--speak--say yes, or no--for God's sake! for God's sake!"
She had taken half a dozen rapid steps to him and grasped him by the arm, gazing into his face.
He bowed his head.
She flung his arm from her, and burst into a laugh.
"Ah, Phyllis! I see it all now. He was the man I loved--I know it now --he was the man I loved. It was for him I cried out just now--'Give him back to me--give him back to me!' "
The wild shriek with which she cried the words the second time rang through the house. She fell upon her knees, clutching at Phyllis' hand as before, and then, making a motion as if about to rise, she fell back and lay with her white face turned to the ceiling, her white arms stretched limply out on each side of her like the arms of a crucified woman.
Servants came with restoratives.
