My hand followed hers to her bodice,
and I loosened all the delicate lace ruffles round it that it had
never been my privilege to touch till now, and that were no whiter
than the lovely breast from which I unloosed them.
So we stood for a few seconds, her lids were drooped over her eyes.
At intervals, it seemed to me, her heart gave great single,
convulsive throbs that thudded through both our beings.
Then suddenly she tore her eyes wide open, and fixed them in an
unreasoning agony upon me. A straining, fearful effort seemed in
them. I pressed her to me.
"What is it, dearest?" I said quietly, trying to recall her to
herself. "Why do you look at me so?"
"Because I cannot see you! I have lost my sight! Oh, Victor, I am
DYING!"
The words were a strained cry of terrified anguish, and they cleft
through my brain like the stroke of an axe. With blinding suddenness
I knew then what was coming. My heart seemed turned into stone. Only
Reason rejected the truth. The gong stood on the table close beside
us. I stretched out my arm and struck it furiously, my eyes fixed in
terror on her face. The Great Change was there; the shadow already
of dissolution. The door was thrust open and a servant hurried in.
"A doctor!" I said to him, "quick for your life."
But I saw, before any doctor could reach us, she would have gone
from me.
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