in that of a painted portrait. Yet the man was alive and in the full
strength of his magnificent youth, supple, active, fierce by nature,
able to have killed her with his hands in the struggle of a moment. Yet
she knew that without a word from her he could neither turn his head nor
move in his seat.

For a long time Unorna was absorbed in her meditations. Again and again
the vision of a newer happiness took shape and colour before her, so
clearly and vividly that she could have clasped it and held it and
believed in its reality, as she had done before Israel Kafka had
entered. But there was a doubt now, which constantly arose between her
and it, the dark and shapeless shadow of a reasoning she hated and yet
knew to be strong.

"I must ask him," she said unconsciously.

"You must ask him," repeated Israel Kafka from his seat.

For the third time Unorna laughed aloud as she heard the echo of her own
words.

"Whom shall I ask?" she inquired contemptuously, as she rose to her
feet.

The dull, glassy eyes sought hers in painful perplexity, following her
face as she moved.

"I do not know," answered the powerless man.

Unorna came close to him and laid her hand upon his head.

"Sleep, until I wake you," she said.

The eyelids drooped and closed at her command, and instantly the man's
breathing became heavy and regular. Unorna's full lips curled as she
looked down at him.

"And you would be my master!" she exclaimed.

Then she turned and disappeared among the plants, leaving him alone.

CHAPTER V

Unorna passed through a corridor which was, indeed, only a long balcony
covered in with arches and closed with windows against the outer air.
At the farther end three steps descended to a dark door, through the
thickness of a massive wall, showing that at this point Unorna's house
had at some former time been joined with another building beyond, with
which it thus formed one habitation. Unorna paused, holding the key
as though hesitating whether she should put it into the lock. It was
evident that much depended upon her decision, for her face expressed
the anxiety she felt. Once she turned away, as though to abandon her
intention, hesitated, and then, with an impatient frown, opened the
door and went in. She passed through a small, well-lighted vestibule and
entered the room beyond.

The apartment was furnished with luxury, but a stranger would have
received an oddly disquieting impression of the whole at a