He had turned to go back, he had seized the door, but Antoinette was before him.Custom does not weigh at such a time.Had she not read his avowal? She had his hand in hers, heedless of us who watched.At first he sought to free himself, but she clung to it with all the strength of her love,--yet she did not look up at him.
``I will come with you,'' she said in a low voice, ``I will come with you, Nick.''
How quaintly she spoke his name, and gently, and timidly --ay, and with a supreme courage.True to him through all those numb years of waiting, this was a little thing--that they should face death together.A little thing, and yet the greatest joy that God can bestow upon a good woman.He looked down at her with a great tenderness, he spoke her name, and I knew that he had taken her at last into his arms.
``Come,'' he said.
They went in together, and the doors closed behind them.
** ** ***
Antoinette's maid was on the step, and the Vicomtesse and I were alone once more in the little parlor.Iremember well the sense of unreality I had, and how it troubled me.I remember how what I had seen and heard was turning, turning in my mind.Nick had come back to Antoinette.They were together in that room, and Mrs.
Temple was dying--dying.No, it could not be so.Again, I was in the garden at Les Iles on a night that was all perfume, and I saw the flowers all ghostly white under the moon.And then, suddenly, I was watching the green candle sputter, and out of the stillness came a cry--the sereno calling the hour of the night.How my head throbbed! It was keeping time to some rhythm, I knew not what.Yes, it was the song my father used to sing:--``I've faught on land? I've faught at sea, At hume I've faught my aunty, O!''
But New Orleans was hot, burning hot, and this could not be cold I felt.Ah, I had it, the water was cold going to Vincennes, so cold!
A voice called me.No matter where I had gone, Ithink I would have come back at the sound of it.I listened intently, that I might lose no word of what it said.
I knew the voice.Had it not called to me many times in my life before? But now there was fear in it, and fear gave it a vibrant sweetness, fear gave it a quality that made it mine--mine.
``You are shivering.''
That was all it said, and it called from across the sea.
And the sea was cold,--cold and green under the gray light.If she who called to me would only come with the warmth of her love! The sea faded, the light fell, and Iwas in the eternal cold of space between the whirling worlds.If she could but find me! Was not that her hand in mine? Did I not feel her near me, touching me? Iwondered that I should hear myself as I answered her.
``I am not ill,'' I said.``Speak to me again.''
She was pressing my hand now, I saw her bending over me, I felt her hair as it brushed my face.She spoke again.
There was a tremor in her voice, and to that alone Ilistened.The words were decisive, of command, and with them some sense as of a haven near came to me.Another voice answered in a strange tongue, saying seemingly:--``Oui, Madame--male couri--bon dje--male couri!''
I heard the doors close, and the sound of footsteps running and dying along the banquette, and after that my shoulders were raised and something wrapped about them.
Then stillness again, the stillness that comes between waking and sleeping, between pain and calm.And at times when I felt her hand fall into mine or press against my brow, the pain seemed more endurable.After that I recall being lifted, being borne along.I opened my eyes once and saw, above a tile-crowned wall, the moon all yellow and distorted in the sky.Then a gate clicked, dungeon blackness, half-light again, ascent, oblivion.
