“I tell you hell is opening beyond that door!—outside your bolted door, there! Can’t you believe me! Can’t you hear me! Oh, what will hold you if the love of God can not!” she burst out. “I’d crucify myself for you if you’d look at me—if you’d only fight hard enough to believe in me—as though you loved me!”
His eyes unclosed but he sank back against her shoulder.
“Victor!” she cried in a terrible voice.
There was no answer.
“If the love of God could only hold you for a moment more!”—she stammered with her mouth against his ear, “just for a moment, Victor! Can’t you hear me?”
“Yes—very far away.”
“Fight for me! Try to care for me! Don’t let Sanang have me!”
He shuddered in her arms, reached out and resting heavily on her shoulder, staggered to his feet and stood swaying like a drunken man.
“No, by God,” he said thickly, “Sanang shall not touch you.”
The girl was on her feet now, holding him upright with an arm around his shoulders.