“Why, Nym!” she said, but her voice was the smallest, faintest whisper, and when she tried to stretch out her hand to lay it on the dark head just beyond her reach, she found that she could barely lift a finger. Usk heard the whisper, however, and as he lifted his head Helene had an odd feeling that the changes of which she had seen so many in her dreams were still going on, for his face was convulsed with pain when he raised it first, but as she looked at him she saw that he was smiling at her. It was most perplexing, but she smiled back at him, and then felt more perplexed still, for those warm drops that fell on her hand as he kissed it were certainly tears.
“Why, Nym!” she said again; and then suddenly, after a pause, “Nym, are you crying because I am going to die?”
“No—nonsense!—Of course not——” but his voice failed.
“I am so glad,” said Helene, smiling radiantly, and Usk was cut to the heart. Had it come to this, that he had so utterly failed to make her happy that she was glad to die and leave him? But she was holding his hand fast.
“Sit beside me, Nym—close,” she said eagerly, though her voice was so weak that he was obliged to lean over her to hear what she was saying, “and hold my hand. Don’t let me drift down the river any more. If I do, I shall drift away, I know. Speak to me, call out to me, if you see me drifting, and hold my hand, so that you can pull me back.”
“Are you afraid of going to sleep, dear?”
“No. I should like to sleep, but it is the river. It is pleasant—oh, so pleasant! but it will carry me away. Only you can keep me back, Nym. Your voice has driven the visions away. I think I could sleep safely if you put your arm round me, for I couldn’t drift then. You won’t let me go, will you?”
Not understanding in the least what she meant, and half inclined to think that she was still delirious, Usk passed his left arm under her head, still holding her right hand firmly in his own. Presently her eyes closed, but almost immediately they opened once more as she cried, “Oh, I was drifting again! Hold me, Nym; hold me!”
“I have got you quite safe,” he answered, and at last she dropped asleep. Usk, trying to change his cramped position without waking her, happened to look towards the door, and saw the Grand-Duchess standing there, beckoning imperiously to him to come away. He shook his head, and tried to intimate that Helene must not be waked. His mother-in-law crept up to the bed.
“You have disturbed her!” she whispered angrily. “You have dared to move her! You may have killed my poor child!”