possibly ill chance; for Maria? Only she can say. Some three years ago I
was studying in England under a Rhodes Scholarship. The future held
great things for me. I was a Yank like yourself, and damn proud of it.
Life in England seemed strange and slow and sometimes utterly dismal
under Austerity. Then, little by little I slipped into their slower
ways, growing to love the people for their spunk, and finally coming to
feel I was one of them, so to speak._

_I have said everything slowed down: I was wrong. Studying intensified
for me. The folklore of the British Isles intrigued me. I delved into
the Black Welsh tales, the mischievous fancies of the Irish, the English
legends of the prowling werewolf. For me it was a relief from political
science, which suddenly palled and which smacked of treason in the light
of current events. My extracurricular research consumed the better part
of my evenings. My books were and always have been a part of me, and as
was to be expected, I overdid it. I studied too hard with too little
let-up. Sometimes it seemed to me there was more truth to what I read
than myth. It became somewhat of an obsession. Suddenly, one night,
everything blacked out._

_I came to in a sanatorium. I didn't know how I got there, and when they
explained it to me, I laughed. I thought they were joking. When I tried
to get up, to walk, I collapsed. Then I knew how bad it had been. I
knew, too, I would have to go slowly._

_It was there I met Eve. She was beautiful. Not like Maria, who is like
a fragile, fair, spun-sugar angel. Eve was more earthy, with skin like
ivory, creamy and rich and pale. Her blue-black hair she wore long and
gathered in the back. She looked about twenty-five, but a streak of pure
white ran back from each of her temples. She was the most striking woman
I have ever met. I had never known anyone like her, nor have I since I
saw her last._

_You know how it is: the air of mystery about a woman makes a man like a
kid again. She reminded me of a sleek, black cat, with her large, hazel
eyes. I bumped into her one day on the verandah, and spent every day
with her after that._

_The doctors wanted me to take exercise--short walks and the like, and
Eve went with me, struggling to keep up with me. The slightest effort
tired her. She suffered from a rather nasty case of anemia. She seldom
smiled; the effort was probably too much for her. I saw her really smile
only once._

_We had been on one of ou