"With all my heart I wished it. How else could I have brought you to the Tyrol?"
I felt the tears gathering into my eyes and my throat choking. I lifted my face to hers, and, taking courage from her words, clipped my arms about her waist.
She gave a little trembling cry, and plucked at my fingers. I but tightened my clasp.
"Ilga!" I murmured. 'Twas the only word which came to my lips, but it summed the whole world for me then--ay, and has done ever since. "Ilga!"
Again she plucked at my fingers, and for all the calmness which she had shown, I could feel her hands burning through her gloves. Then a shadow darkened for an instant across the window, the moonlight faded, and her face was lost to me. 'Twas for no longer than an instant. I looked towards the window, but Ilga bent her head down between it and me.
"Tis only the branches swinging in the wind," she said softly.
I rose to my feet and drew her towards me. She set her palms against my chest as if to repulse me, but she said no word, and I saw the necklace about her throat flashing and sparkling with the heave of her bosom.
It seemed to me that a light step sounded without the pavilion, and I turned my head aside to listen.
"Tis only the leaves blowing along the terrace," she whispered, and I looked again at her and drew her closer.
For a time she resisted; then I heard her sigh, and her hand stole across my shoulder. Her head drooped forward until her hair touched my lips. I could feel her heart beating on my breast. Gently I turned her face upwards, and then with a loud clap the shutters were flung to and the room was plunged in darkness.