Was she one of those who have stepped from the permitted places?
"Sara the daughter of Ruel—who was beloved by an evil spirit who suffered none to come to her."
"There was a young gentlewoman of excellent beauty, daughter of a nobleman of Mar, who loved a foule monstrous thing verie horrible to behold, and for it refused rich marriages.... Until the Gospel of St. John being said suddenlie the wicked spirit flue his waies with sore noise."
I put out my hand and thrust the pile of books aside from my direct sight. But I could not so easily thrust from my mind the thoughts these books had implanted. I could not forget that Desire Michell herself had alleged jealousy as the Thing's reason for attacking me.
What if we came to an explanation tonight and ended this long delirium? Was it not time? Had not my weeks of endurance earned me this right? Resolution mounted in me, defiant and strong.
The evening had passed to an hour when I might look for the girl to come. I switched off the lights, and sat down to keep our nightly tryst.
In the darkness of the haunted room, the thoughts I would have held at bay rushed upon me as clamorous besiegers.
Desire! Desire of the world! Desire of mine and of the unhuman Thing, did we grasp at Eve or Lilith? At the fire on the hearth or the cold phosphorescence of swamp and marsh?
A drift of fragrance was afloat on the air. A delicate stir of movement passed by me. I raised my head from my hands, expectant.
"I am here," her familiar voice told me.