"What is there to be afraid of?" he queried tremulously.
Again her eyes thrilled him.
"I have tricked you!"
He started to rise, grasping the white soft hands in his own and relinquishing them the next moment, as if he had touched fire. She held him easily with a glance of her strange eyes.
"What do you want of me?" he stammered. "Why are you here?"
"Come,—let me show you!" she said, taking him by the hand and leading him towards the window which looked out upon the mere.
He followed her resistlessly.
In a flash he felt her arms about him, drawing him close to her. She threw words in his face, with a fierce, intimate whispering.
Francesco recoiled, as if he had been bitten by a snake. But the magic was too strong for his starved senses; ever and ever she caught him towards her, kissing him with moist, hungry lips, while her eyes scintillated in strange lights that made him dizzy, and her arms were coiled about him with a strength he had not guessed.
With a choking outcry he succeeded at last in releasing himself, and turning to the door, tore at it, and found it fastened on the other side.