ds down through the dusk.
She was being drawn up into arms which she could not see. Her hands were
clasped around a neck, her cheek was against a face which she had never
hoped to touch. Her reason and her fears were stifled and caught away
from her lips with her breath. She was giving up to her awful weakness.
She was giving up to the power of love. She was letting herself sink
into it as she would sink into deep water. The sense of drowning in this
profound, unfathomable element, of shutting her eyes and opening her
arms to it, was the highest she had ever touched; but all at once the
memory of what she was leaving behind her, like a last glimpse of sky,
swept her with fear. She made a desperate effort to rescue herself
before the waters quite closed over her head.

She pulled herself free. Without his arms around her for the first
moment she could hardly stand. She took an uncertain step forward; then
with a rush she reached the white curtains. They flapped behind her. She
heard Kerr laugh, a note, quiet, caressing, almost content. It came from
the gloom like a disembodied voice of triumph. Her rush had carried her
into the middle of the anteroom. At this last moment was there to be no
miracle to save her? There was no rescue among these dumb walls and
closed-up windows. The purple child gave her a sharp, bird-like glance,
as if the most that this wild woman could want was "change." Flora
looked behind her and saw Kerr, who had put aside the curtains and was
standing looking at her. He was bright and triumphant in that twilight
room. He was not afraid of losing her now. He knew in that one moment he
had imprisoned her for ever! She saw him approaching, but though all her
mind and spirit strained for flight, something had happened to her will.
It tottered like her knees.

He stooped and picked up an artificial rose, which had fallen from her
hat, and put it into her hand. A moment, with his head bent, he stood
looking into her face, but without touching her.

"Sit down over there," he said, and pointed toward a chair against the
wall. She went meekly like a prisoner. He spoke to the child in the
purple apron, who was still sitting behind the desk. He put some money
on the cash-desk in front of her. It was gold. It shone gorgeously in
the dull surrounding, and the child pounced upon it, incredulous of her
luck. Then he turned, crossed the room, soundlessly opened the door, and
went out into the violet dark of the str