At one o'clock in the morning he went up the hotel stairway, surprised at seeing a ray of light underneath the door of his room. He entered…. She was awaiting him—reading, tranquil and smiling. Her face, refreshed and retouched with juvenile color, did not show the slightest trace of the morning's spasmodic outbreak. She was clad in pyjamas.
Seeing Ulysses enter, she arose with outstretched arms.
"Tell me that you are not still angry with me!… Tell me that you will forgive me!… I was very naughty toward you this afternoon, I admit it."
She was embracing him, rubbing her mouth against his neck with a feline purr. Before the captain could respond she continued with a childish voice:
"My shark! My sea-wolf!—who has made me wait all these hours!… Swear to me that you have not been unfaithful!… I can perceive at once the trace of another woman."
Sniffing his beard and face, her mouth approached the sailor's.
"No, you have not been unfaithful…. I still find my own perfume….
Oh, Ulysses! My hero!…"
She kissed him with that absorbing kiss, which appeared to take all the life from him, obscuring his thoughts and annulling his will-power, making him tremble from head to foot. All was forgotten,—offenses, slights, plans of departure…. And, as usual, he fell, conquered by that vampire caress.
In the darkness he heard Freya's gentle voice. She was recapitulating what they had not said, but what the two were thinking of at the same time.
"The doctor believes that you ought to remain. Let your boat go with its hideous old faun, who is nothing but a drawback. You are to remain here, on land…. You will be able to do us a great favor…. You know you will; you will remain?… What happiness!"