He drank the milk slowly, as she had ordered…. The moments were sensational. Picture after picture passed through the light of his mind, as from other lives, and the loves of many women; and then the whole story that he had told Beth Truba rushed by—the mother's hand and the little boy—the city, the parks, the ships—the hours upon her arm, when she had made him over anew to face the long voyage alone—the questions he had asked—the last port with her, which he had never been able to find—the last ride with Beth—until he was shaken with the rush of visions. Everything that he was, and hoped to be, everything that he had thought of beauty and truth and giving, every aspiration and every inspiration—seemed gifts of women! His very life and all that had come to him—gifts of women. And all their loving, wistful, smiling faces were there—among the Dream Ranges…. Now this one was speaking:
… "I want you to show me where I am to rest and where you are to
rest."
Up they went together and softly…. He led her into his own room, but she saw his things and would not.
"This is where you belong," she whispered. "You will rest better here…. Please don't dispute…. But let me be near, if you will."
He showed her a little room that joined his own. Falk had made it ready.
"Just the place for me…. And after you have lain down, please whistle softly. I shall come in and read to you until you are asleep."
"It's like a fairy story already," he said.
* * * * *
He closed his eyes, and the pictures took up their swift passing again. It was not the drug, but the new thing in this life of his—a woman's ministering…. She came in presently, her hair loosened. She wore one of his silk night-coats, the sleeves rolled up; and very little, she looked, in the heelless straw sandals. She was pale. He saw the throbbing artery in her white throat. The polished ebon floor had a startling effect upon her black hair.
"You are like Rossetti's Pomegranate picture," he said, and added with a strange smile, "Do you know there is something true about you—arrow-true?"