ant.

"The thunder is getting closer," he said. "That was a storm wind, all
right! Would you rather go upstairs and lie down, and not hear any more
of this stuff tonight?"

"No! Oh, no! I could not bear to be alone," she refused. "Just, just go
on, dear. Of course it is the coming storm that makes the room so cold."

He put his left arm around her as she nestled against him. His right
hand held the diary flattened on the table under the light.

"The next entry is just one line in the middle of a page where
everything else is blotted out," Vere repeated. "It reads: 'The child is
a week old today.'"

The wave crashed foaming in tumult up the strand, flowing higher,
drenching me in cold sharp as fire. The tide rose faster tonight. The
silence that held the others dumb before the significance of that last
sentence covered my silence from notice. Desire's face was quite hidden;
lamplight and firelight wavered and gleamed across her bent head. I
wanted to arise and go to her, to take her hands and tell her to have
patience and courage. But when this wave ebbed, my strength drained away
with the receding water. Moreover, the darkness curdled and moved beyond
the window opposite me. The curtains hung between were no bar to my
vision, as the light and presence of my companions were no bar to the
Thing that kept rendezvous with me. Since last night, we were nearer to
one another.

A breath of chill foulness crept across the pungent odor of the burning
apple-log in the fireplace. A whisper spoke to my intelligence.

"Man conquered by me, fall down before me. Beg my forbearance. Beg life
of me--and take the gift!"

"No," my thought answered Its.

"You die, Man."

"All men die."

"Not as they die who are mine."

"I am not yours. You kill me, as a wild beast might. But I am not yours;
not dying nor dead am I yours."

"Would you not live, pygmy?"

"Not as your pensioner."

The logs on the hearth crackled and sank down with a soft rustle, burned
through to a core of glowing red. Phillida spoke with a hushed urgency,
drawing still closer to her husband, so that her forehead rested against
his shoulder.

"Go on, Ethan. Finish and let us be done."

Vere bent his head above the book on the table to obey her. Across the
dark I suddenly saw the Eyes glare in upon him.

"On the next page, the writing begins again," he said. "It says:

"'I am offered the kingdoms of earth. But I crave that kingdom of myself
which I ca