What caused him to raise his head after a period of brooding, Otto knew not, nor why the opposite wall with its drear flitting shadows held his gaze spellbound. To his utter discomfiture and amazement he saw the Venus panel noiselessly open, a shadow glided into the chamber and the panel closed behind it.
Ere Otto could utter a word, Stephania stood before him.
He rose and receded before her, as one would before a spectre. Hungrily, madly his eyes gazed into her pale face, despairingly. A strange fire was alight in her orbs, as once more she stood face to face with the youth, whose soul she had absorbed as the vampire the soul of his victim.
With fingers tightly interlaced she stood before him, then, as he would not speak, she said with a strange smile:
"You see,—I have come back."
He made no reply, but receded from her as some evil spirit to the farthest nook of the chamber.
For a time she seemed at a loss how to proceed; when she spoke again, there was a strange, jarring tone in her voice.
"Fear nothing!" she said, a great sadness vibrating in her speech. "I came not hither to renew old scenes. What has been is past for ever! Strange, that I had to come into your life, King Otto, or that you had to cross the line of mine,—who is to blame? You have once told me that you believe in a Force, called Fate. You have convinced me now,—even if my own suffering had not."
"How came you here?" Otto spoke, hardly above a whisper.
Stephania pointed below.