d against the wall,
when Olalla ran betwixt us, and Felipe, following at a bound, pinned down
his mother on the floor.

A trance-like weakness fell upon me; I saw, heard, and felt, but I was
incapable of movement. I heard the struggle roll to and fro upon the
floor, the yells of that catamount ringing up to Heaven as she strove to
reach me. I felt Olalla clasp me in her arms, her hair falling on my
face, and, with the strength of a man, raise and half drag, half carry me
upstairs into my own room, where she cast me down upon the bed. Then I
saw her hasten to the door and lock it, and stand an instant listening to
the savage cries that shook the residencia. And then, swift and light as
a thought, she was again beside me, binding up my hand, laying it in her
bosom, moaning and mourning over it with dove-like sounds. They were not
words that came to her, they were sounds more beautiful than speech,
infinitely touching, infinitely tender; and yet as I lay there, a thought
stung to my heart, a thought wounded me like a sword, a thought, like a
worm in a flower, profaned the holiness of my love. Yes, they were
beautiful sounds, and they were inspired by human tenderness; but was
their beauty human?

All day I lay there. For a long time the cries of that nameless female
thing, as she struggled with her half-witted whelp, resounded through the
house, and pierced me with despairing sorrow and disgust. They were the
death-cry of my love; my love was murdered; was not only dead, but an
offence to me; and yet, think as I pleased, feel as I must, it still
swelled within me like a storm of sweetness, and my heart melted at her
looks and touch. This horror that had sprung out, this doubt upon
Olalla, this savage and bestial strain that ran not only through the
whole behaviour of her family, but found a place in the very foundations
and story of our love--though it appalled, though it shocked and sickened
me, was yet not of power to break the knot of my infatuation.

When the cries had ceased, there came a scraping at the door, by which I
knew Felipe was without; and Olalla went and spoke to him--I know not
what. With that exception, she stayed close beside me, now kneeling by
my bed and fervently praying, now sitting with her eyes upon mine. So
then, for these six hours I drank in her beauty, and silently perused the
story in her face. I saw the golden coin hover on her breaths; I saw her
eyes darken and brighter, and st