Yes, it was she, my visitor of the night. As
I approached her, the moon shone out again. She
seemed all, as it were, spun out of half-transparent,
milky mist,—through her face I could see
a branch faintly stirring in the wind; only the hair
and eyes were a little dark, and on one of the fingers
of her clasped hands a slender ring shone with a gleam
of pale gold. I stood still before her, and tried
to speak; but the voice died away in my throat, though
it was no longer fear exactly I felt. Her eyes
were turned upon me; their gaze expressed neither
distress nor delight, but a sort of lifeless attention.
I waited to see whether she would utter a word, but
she remained motionless and speechless, and still
gazed at me with her deathly intent eyes. Dread
came over me again.
‘I have come!’ I cried at last with an
effort. My voice sounded muffled and strange
to me.
‘I love you,’ I heard her whisper.
‘You love me!’ I repeated in amazement.
’Give yourself up to me, ’was whispered
me again in reply.
‘Give myself up to you! But you are a phantom;
you have no body even.’ A strange animation
came upon me. ’What are you—smoke,
air, vapour? Give myself up to you! Answer
me first, Who are you? Have you lived upon the
earth? Whence have you come?’
’Give yourself up to me. I will do you
no harm. Only say two words: “Take
me."’
I looked at her. ‘What is she saying?’
I thought. ’What does it all mean?
And how can she take me? Shall I try?’
‘Very well,’ I said, and unexpectedly
loudly, as though some one had given me a push from
behind; ‘take me!’
I had hardly uttered these words when the mysterious
figure, with a sort of inward laugh, which set her
face quivering for an instant, bent forward, and stretched
out her arms wide apart.... I tried to dart away,
but I was already in her power. She seized me,
my body rose a foot from the ground, and we both floated
smoothly and not too swiftly over the wet, still grass.
At first I felt giddy, and instinctively I closed
my eyes.... A minute later I opened them again.
We were floating as before; but the forest was now
nowhere to be seen. Under us stretched a plain,
spotted here and there with dark patches. With
horror I felt that we had risen to a fearful height.
‘I am lost; I am in the power of Satan,’
flashed through me like lightning. Till that
instant the idea of a temptation of the evil one, of
the possibility of perdition, had never entered my
head. We still whirled on, and seemed to be mounting
higher and higher.
‘Where will you take me?’ I moaned at
last.
‘Where you like,’ my companion answered.
She clung close to me; her face was almost resting
upon my face. But I was scarcely conscious of
her touch.
‘Let me sink down to the earth, I am giddy at
this height.’
