For some time longer they sat silent.  Then Clare said, with something like a groan, “Would to God I could die here and now, or else that there was some spell by which one could make memory a blank!”

“Let us try the lotos,” said Eleanor.  “See, I brought it as you told me.”

From her pocket she drew a paper which, being opened, proved to contain the dried petals of a flower, evidently an aquatic plant.  Yellow and lifeless as it was, Eleanor looked at it with wistful reverence.  “It came from Egypt,” she said:  then she added, “where you are going.”

“We will see if there is any magic in it,” said Clare.

So, together they took the dried petals and began to eat them, smiling a little sadly at each other as they did so.

“Herodotus says that when the Nile is full, ’and all the grounds round it are a perfect sea, there grows a vast quantity of lilies which the Egyptians call lotos, in the water,’” said Clare.  “He adds that this flower, especially the root of it, is very sweet.  If this is the same, it has certainly changed its flavor since that time.”

“It is not disagreeable,” said Eleanor.  “But I fear we shall not find the effect for which we have hoped.  It is of the lotos fruit that Homer and Tennyson have written.”

“And the lotos flower of mythology is an East Indian, not an Egyptian, aquatic; but since we desire to link our fancy with the flower of the Nile, we will ignore the poets and the Brahmins.  After all, we only desire it as a symbol of the renunciation of the past on which we have agreed.  Eleanor, what if we should indeed resolve to leave the past behind us from this hour, and face our future together?”

He looked at her imploringly and passionately, but instead of replying she put her hand to her head.  “How strangely dizzy I am!” she said.  “Can it—­do you think it can be the lotos?”

“Dizzy!” he repeated.  “Then I must take you from the edge of this precipice.  Perhaps it is that which affects you.  It could not have been the lotos, or I should feel it too.  Come, let me lead you round the rock.”

But when he attempted to rise he found that to him, too, a sudden strange dizziness came.  A constriction seemed gathering about his heart, a mist seemed rising before his eyes.  Before he had half risen he sank back against the rock.

“Do you feel it too?” she asked quickly.

“Yes,” he said slowly, putting his hand also to his head.  “What can it mean?  Could there have been anything wrong in that plant?  The lotos itself is harmless, either flower or fruit.  Eleanor, my darling!” he cried with sudden alarm.  “Good Heavens! what is the matter?  How pale you look!”

“I—­I do not think it could have been the lotos.  It must have been some poisonous plant,” said she faintly.  “This giddiness and numbness increase.”  Then she held out her hands tremulously.  “Hold me,” she said.  “The earth seems slipping away from me.  Oh, Victor, what if it should be fatal?”