"I would do anything in the world for you but turn back," he said gravely.
"You won't do just the one thing I ask," she said pouting, and she looked so pretty and so much like the Gabrielle whom he had loved so devotedly that his heart beat quickly, and he could scarcely restrain himself.
"I love you as my own soul," he said fervently.
Gabrielle, aware of the advantage that she was gaining, smiled.
"No, you don't," she answered lightly, "you love your own soul better than me."
At these words Amer's hand flew to his sword. He suddenly felt that the enemy was using the lips of the one he loved best in all the world to tempt him. Could it be the Devil himself? The words in the Guide Book which had perplexed him at first, but of which he had been gradually learning the meaning, flashed across his mind:—
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world."
"Get thee behind me," he cried suddenly, and turning round he expected to come face to face with an enemy he had not before encountered; but the foe was invisible.
"Ah! I see," said Gabrielle, "you are as mad as ever! We should never suit. We are made of different stuff;" then she added in a softer tone of voice,
"If you turn back with me, who knows but that one day I might set out on the journey with you?"