"No; I shall sit up for a time. Go to sleep in peace. You are quite safe."
Sybil lay down on her bed, only drawing the rug partly over her. She had a loose thin flannel gown fastened round her waist and open a little at her neck in the hot night. It was very still within the tent, and without there was not a sound as the moonlit hours went by.
Regina sat like a statue, her elbow on her knee, her chin on her hand, watching the sleeping girl.
What mad, passionate thoughts came to her in their dark battalions and assailed her!
How beautiful it was, that delicate, ivory face, so exquisitely carved, as it lay against the white canvas pillow. It was no wonder that a man should covet it for his own, especially a man like Everest, with his artistic eye for perfect lines. He had always admired it enough to make him keep with him everywhere the blue velvet portrait-case he had had in his rooms at the Rectory. His sister had said that but for Regina he would have married her. But it was not true—Regina felt it was not true, that she never could have satisfied him—kept him—but yet, perhaps, beauty and name and breeding in his wife would have been enough, and for the rest, of all that is divine in humanity—passion and love and character—he would have sought in other women ... she did not know, her thoughts could only whirl round in dizzy, empty circles, outside the barrier of his implacable silence, as falling leaves might beat and whirl round a fortress wall. She knew nothing, and in the obscurity of another's feelings and passions there is no firm ground to stand on.
"It is not his fault, nor hers," she thought; "but oh! Fate! take her away from here, leave him to me again."
In the silence stirred a tiny sound, she heard it, and then, instantly, quicker than thought itself, the tent flap moved and a long yellow streak flashed by her and was upon the bed before her eyes.
One frightful shriek rang out, then the yellow flash passed by and was gone into the night, and the bed was empty where the golden beauty of the girl had been. Regina had sprung to her feet, but the lion had apparently not even seen her.
Almost like lightning, with a rapidity that no one can believe until he has seen it, the great beast had entered, seized its prey and gone.