'Chios, this may bring me death;' and she uttered a moan like the sighing of the doomed. 'Take thy dagger, plunge it into my heart! Do not let them torture me! Death from thine hand I would receive as a kiss of love! As for the death of this man, I repent not. I knew him well before I slew. Were he a god, and I could kill, I would have done so!'
What was to be done? The first impulse of Chios was to call Saronia and tell her all. No; he dared not. She must be free from knowledge of the thing.
He took the dead body and drew it on one side, that Saronia might not perceive it.
Then, ordering Endora home, he went back to the priestess.
'What ails thee, Chios? Thou art agitated. Has aught occurred?'
'No; it must have been the wild bird's shriek. No being was about save Endora. Let us move away.'
And they walked up the pathway past the corpse, and as she passed she shuddered.
'Art thou cold, Saronia?'
'No; but by some strange intuition I feel the presence of the dead.'
'Banish the thought!' said he. ''Tis but the moaning winds which play upon thy soul.'